I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for over 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.
When Queen Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, learned that her son Ahaziah, the king of Judah, had been killed, she seized the throne and began killing the rest of the royal family. However, Ahaziah’s sister, Jehosheba, smuggled Ahaziah’s infant son out of the nursery and hid him in the Temple. His name was Joash and he remained hidden in the Temple for six years. When Joash was seven, Jehoiada the priest made him king and overthrew the reign of Athaliah. After killing Athaliah, Jehoiada led the people to destroy the temple of Baal in Jerusalem.
We are told that Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord for as long as Jehoiada was alive to instruct him. However, Joash did not destroy the high places where people continued to offer sacrifices throughout his reign. The New Living Translation translates “high places” as “pagan shrines”. However, I think that allows us to miss an important lesson here. From my reading of the Old Testament, it appears to me that the high places were places where people sacrificed to God. However, the problem with this was that when they did that they started to forget what God really wanted from them and gradually drifted into being accepting of idolatry. We see the same thing today when people think that they don’t need to go to church to be a Christian. We need to spend time with people who are fellow Christians, at least some of whom the only reason we would ever spend time with them is because they are our fellow believers in Christ.
Joash instituted a program to repair the Temple. Late in his reign he was forced to pay tribute to the king of Aram. Shortly after doing so, he was assassinated by two of his officers.
Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, where he met Aquila and Aquila’s wife Priscilla. Paul stayed with them and worked with them because they were craftsmen in the same business that he was (tent making). Each Sabbath, Paul went to the synagogue and attempted to convince both Jews and Gentiles. Eventually, some of the Jews began to oppose Paul and answer his arguments with insults (apparently with the support of the opinion leaders of the synagogue). When this happened Paul shook the dust from his clothes and went next door to the home of a God-fearing Gentile to teach. The leader of the synagogue, along with his household became believers, as did a large number of other people, Jew and Gentile, in the city.
Paul preached in Corinth for a year and a half before problems arose. When a new governor was appointed to the region, some of the Jews brought Paul before the new governor. They accused him of teaching people to worship God in ways that were contrary to Jewish law. The governor threw the case out saying that he was not going to judge a case that involved Jewish religious beliefs, not Roman law. The crowd then grabbed the leader of the synagogue (a different man from the one were told earlier had become a believer), named Sosthenes, and beat him in front of the governor, who did nothing to intervene. There are two things that are not clear to me from the passage. The first is, was Sosthenes also a believer, or was he perhaps among those who brought the case before the governor? The second is what group made up the crowd and why did they beat Sosthenes? Were they Jews who had brought the case, unhappy about the outcome? If so, did they beat Sosthenes because they thought he had done a poor job of making their case? Or, was it because he was a believer? Maybe the crowd was composed of people who were angry that the Jews had brought the case in the first place?
Another psalm of praise. A key line for me is this:
let them proclaim your power.
There are some who read this to say that we should tell each successive generation about the great things which God has done in history, and I heartily agree. However, I think that this is really telling us that we should tell the next generation about the mighty acts which God has done in our lifetimes.
This psalm reminds us of where to look to see the great things which God has done for us and around us.
and lifts those bent beneath their loads.
The eyes of all look to you in hope;
you give them their food as they need it.
When you open your hand,
you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.
The psalmist adds to that another reason to praise and love the Lord.
yes, to all who call on him in truth.
He grants the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cries for help and rescues them.
I will recount to those around me the times when God has heard my cries for help and rescued me. And when I face troubles, I will remember that He has done so in the past and trust that He will do so again.
Those who pursue selfish ends are unfriendly and those who are unfriendly tend to start quarrels with no good cause.