For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

Proverbs 22:8-9

    When people begin promoting injustice, they are setting the stage for a calamity which will rebound upon them. The rage which they promote as a weapon against their opponents will break just as they need it most.
    In contrast, those who share their goods with those in need will be honoured. These two proverbs show two different ways in which people can seek to work with the poor. On one hand, we have those who encourage the poor to rage against those who have more and can be perceived as holding the poor back. Those who do this are not fighting injustice, they are promoting it. On the other hand, we have those who strive to aid the poor, giving of their time and resources to help the poor find their way out of poverty. The former will find that the rage they have generated as a tool or a weapon will break in their hands, leaving them defenseless against the attacks they have called upon themselves. The latter will be honoured.

Psalm 43:1-5

    When everything and everyone seems to turn against you, seek out God. Follow the light of His word and depend on His loving care. Praise Him and the salvation that comes from Him. Then He will lead you to His holy place where you can take joy in Him once more. All may conspire against you, but if you follow God’s light their conspiracy will fail. Praise God, even when you feel depressed and He will bring you back to joy.

2 Corinthians 3:1-18

    If we are truly following Christ we do not need to tell others of our faithfulness. We do not need to write letters that describe how wonderful we are. Those that matter will know how God works through us and will pass that on to those who need to know. We can be confident in the same way in which Paul was confident. His confidence was not in his own ability. Rather, he was confident that God would accomplish His goals through him. Let us not trust in our own abilities, nor think that our success shows how wonderful we are. Let us instead trust in God and let our successes be evidence to those around us of how wonderful God is.
    Just as Paul was, we too have been made ministers of a new covenant, a new way to approach God. The old way was one based on following the letter of the Law. The new way is based on following the Spirit, which gave the Law in the first place. The Law arrived shiny and bright, but those attempting to follow it to the letter found they needed to cover it over. This resulted in the Talmudic tradition of putting a “fence around the Law.” They needed to come up with ever more convoluted regulations in order to avoid breaking the Law as things changed and the direct application of the letter of the Law became less obvious in the new circumstances. We, however, have the Spirit directing us. We do not seek to follow the letter of the Law, rather we seek to allow God’s Spirit to direct us to do His will. We do not need a “fence around the Law” because we are not seeking to follow the letter of the Law, rather we seek to follow the Spirit, who gave us that Law in the first place.

Job 31-33:33

    Job finishes his final monologue with a list which sounds much like Jesus’ teachings, especially the parable of the sheep and the goats. Job lists off a list of sins which he has not committed. The majority of Job’s list is about treating others well and with respect. The only other sins he really mentions are greed, which he identifies as idolatry, and sexual immorality. This part of Job’s monologue is a good guide for us to live by.
    When Job is finished the youngest of his friends speaks. Elihu was angry because Job had justified himself rather than God, while the other three had failed to refute Job, yet they condemned him. Elihu had waited to allow his elders to speak first. However, wisdom comes from God, so those who are older are not always wiser than youth. Elihu answers Job’s complaints that God does not speak. God does indeed speak, sometimes in one way, other times in another. God uses many ways to speak to us. If we do not hear God speak, it is because we refuse to listen. God seeks to deliver His message to us so that we will turn from sin to the light and avoid the destruction which sin brings.

     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. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

Job 31-33:33

     Job once more declares his innocence. A look at the sins which he tells us he has never committed remind me of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. He starts by saying that he has never looked with lust at a young woman. He continues by saying that he has not lied nor deceived anyone. Notice here that it is not enough to tell the truth, you must not tell it in such a manner so as to deceive your listener. Job continues by declaring that he was never unfair to his servants, nor did he ever refuse to help the poor. This passage is a great one to read if we want to know how we are called by God to behave.
     When Job had finished, Elihu speaks up. We do not know when Elihu arrived, but he is the only one of Job’s friends who is not called upon by God to apologize to Job. Elihu begins by telling Job’s other friends that he waited for them to speak because he was younger than they and he recognized that with age comes wisdom. However, they have failed to refute Job’s arguments and Elihu thinks they have used faulty logic. Elihu begins by saying that Job has declared that he is without sin and that God is persecuting him unjustly. He tells Job that he is wrong to accuse God of not speaking to those who seek Him. Elihu declares that God speaks to people over and over, but people fail to recognize His voice.

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     Today’s passage is fabulous, both in Job’s statement laying out how someone who truly following God will behave. It gives places righteous behavior in a positive light rather than a negative light. Righteousness is not about not doing certain things. Rather it is about doing things that are righteous, treating people right, helping the poor and oppressed, etc..
     Then Elihu speaks and challenges Job’s claims that God does not answer his cries. Elihu begins by telling us that the young should give their elders respect and wait to hear their wisdom, but that that does not mean that only those who are older have wisdom to share. Elihu then tells us that if we do not hear God’s voice, it is because we have refused to recognize when God speaks to us. I can not count the number of times I have cried out to God, “Please tell me what to do!” only to finally realize that He had been giving me an answer and I was not listening.

2 Corinthians 3:1-18

     Paul realizes that what he has been saying in the last section could be taken as bragging and denies that he is doing so. He points out that he needs no letter of recommendation. The only letter of recommendation he is interested in is the lives lived by the Corinthian Christians. Then Paul makes a great assertion of faith:

Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.

We can have great confidence in what we do, as long as we remember that any competence we have to address the problems in front of us comes from God. This is a reminder that just because we can confidently undertake the tasks which God has set before us, it does not mean that we are better than others.
     Paul continues by saying that the competence he has been given is as a minister of God’s new covenant, a covenant, not of laws, but of the Spirit. The old covenant of laws etched into stone brought death, yet it came with such glory that the people could not look directly on Moses face because it shone so brightly with God’s glory. How much more brightly, Paul asks, will the new covenant which brings life glow in God’s glory? We do not need to be either like Moses, who put a veil over his face to protect the people from seeing the glory of God, or like the people who could not stand to look directly on God’s face. Something like the veil which Moses wore over his face comes over everybody’s heart when the words of Scripture are read, UNLESS it is removed by faith in Christ. When someone today reads Moses’ writings there is a veil over their heart. But if someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away and they can fully understand the message in God’s Word. Those of us who have turned to the Lord can thus reflect God’s glory for everyone to see.

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     Do people see God’s glory when they look at me? I’m afraid the answer, all to often, is “No”. I will continue to strive to better allow the Spirit to shine through me and I will pray that the Spirit shine through me despite my attempts to dim that light to avoid embarrassment.

Psalm 43:1-5

     When I am discouraged, I need to ask myself why. There is no reason to be sad and discouraged when we put our hope in God. Which tells me that when I am sad and discouraged it is because I am relying on myself rather than God.

Proverbs 22:8-9

     Those who spread injustice will reap calamity. Injustice inevitably results in disaster which will come back to those who committed the injustice. Those who are generous are blessed by their very generosity (although not ONLY by their generosity).

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