I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Today’s passage describes Nebuchadnezzar having another dream. The dream foreshadowed Nebuchadnezzar abandoning his throne for a period of time (seven “periods of time”) and then returning to take it up. The account tells us that Nebuchadnezzar became arrogant and took credit for his success. He came to believe that he was a god and could do anything he desired. In response to this, God struck him with some form of madness so that he left human civilization and lived as a wild animal for some period of time. At the end of the time chosen by God, Nebuchadnezzar looked up to the sky and his sanity returned. When his sanity returned he praised God and acknowledged His power.
This is a lesson for us to remember that everything we have accomplished in this life has happened according to God’s will. When we begin to believe that we are the masters of our own fate and stop humbly honoring God for the gifts He has given us, He will show us the limits to our ability.
Peter began his second letter by reminding us that God will give us grace and peace in proportion to our knowledge and understanding of God and Jesus Christ. He then wrote about the structure of our lives in Christ. There is an order to how we should build our relationship with God. It starts with faith in Christ and a recognition that without Him we can be nothing but slaves to sin. Once we have come to this faith, the natural reaction is to allow God to replace our sinful desires with the desire to do good (and to actually do good). Once we have received the desire and willingness to do good, we next add knowledge of God’s commands and will. It gives us no benefit to know God’s commands if we have not yet received the desire to follow them. As we are given a knowledge and understanding of God’s will for us, we begin to exercise self-control, which leads to embracing patience. As we patiently endure the trials which God sends our way we acquire godliness. Godliness expresses itself as brotherly affection for our fellow believers and as love for all we meet. As we acquire these characteristics in increasing measure we will become more effective at carrying out God’s will in this world.
If we discover that the ministry we are involved in is unproductive and/or ineffective, we can look at this list and examine whether we are approaching some aspect in our lives in the wrong order. For example, are we seeking more knowledge before we have applied what knowledge we already have in order to do good? Or, are we attempting to express love and brotherly affection before we have learned to exercise self-control? It is never wrong to express love and brotherly affection. However, if we have not yet learned the appropriate self-control for the situation, our attempts to express those may fail and instead of love and brotherly affection we may exhibit selfish control and interference.
The key to wisdom is studying God’s instructions. If you want to be wiser than others, meditate on God’s word. However, it is not enough to just meditate on it, you must also put it into practice. In this passage is a phrase that we must make a touchstone for our lives:
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet
and a light for my path.
As we study God’s word and apply it to our lives we will discover that it provides guidance for our path helping us to see obstacles before we trip over them and stumble. Of course we can still trip and fall if we refuse to adjust our course according to what the light of God’s word reveals to us. O Lord, give me the humility to accept the need to adjust my course according to Your will to avoid the obstacles that are before me.
The perverse will find themselves falling into traps of their own making.