For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The proverb writer tells us that it is better to love alone in a hostile environment (such as a desert) than with someone who is quarrelsome (especially if that someone is your wife, or husband). Think about it and do not do that to your spouse.

    It is before God that I wish to be judged. I ask that God judge between me and those who are my enemies. I know that I am not innocent of wrongdoing, but I have faith in God’s mercy. My human enemies will find wrongdoing where I did nothing wrong. They will condemn me for crimes I did not commit. I trust that God will only condemn me for those things I have actually done wrong. I will throw myself on His mercy for those things, because I know that His justice is righteous.

    Paul castigates the Corinthian Church for their divisions. When they meet together they divide into factions, each attempting to prove that it is they who have God’s approval, not the others. As I read what Paul is writing here, many of the Corinthian believers were attempting to lift themselves up by putting others down. This is always a mistake, because the only way for us to lift ourselves up in God’s eyes is to raise others above ourselves.
    Paul goes on from there to condemn the way they celebrate the Lord’s Supper/Communion. What I always think about when I read this is that the event described by Paul bears little resemblance to our modern celebration of the Lord’s Supper. It is impossible to imagine anyone abusing our modern Communion the way in which Paul condemns the Corinthian believers for doing. Paul’s description sounds more like a fellowship meal gone wrong. The more I read this passage, and to some degree even the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper, the more convinced I become that we have lost something in turning Communion into a ritual overseen by “clergy”. It seems to me that Communion should be more a family style event where we reaffirm our family relationship and build bonds with our brothers and sisters while acknowledging the Lordship of Jesus.

    The first thing that struck me about today’s passage was the fact that King Xerxes threw a huge party to celebrate how wonderful he was. Then when he had gotten himself and all of his advisers and dignitaries completely potted, not just drunk, but seven days binge drinking drunk, he decided to show off how beautiful his wife was. He did not do this in order to honor Queen Vashti, he did this in order to demonstrate how great he was to be able to get such a beautiful, attractive wife. Queen Vashti did not wish to be paraded before a bunch of men to be gawked over as a piece of her husband’s property. God used King Xerxes foolishness for His own ends, but, men, if you want to have a lasting, happy marriage don’t make the sort of mistake Xerxes made here (there is a lesson here for women, but it’s a stretch, so I am not going there today).