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.

     Jeroboam’s son became sick. Jeroboam had his wife disguise herself and go to the prophet who had told him he would become king to find out what would happen to his son. The prophet recognized Jeroboam’s wife, even though he was now blind. The prophet told her that the boy would die and that Jeroboam’s family would be destroyed. The prophet condemned Jeroboam for his idolatry and prophesies that Israel will be scattered for its sins.
     The next section tells us that Rehoboam reintroduces the practice of pagan rituals in Judah. We are told that the people imitated the “detestable practices” of the peoples that God had driven out of the land. Among those practices that the people adopted was that of having male prostitutes as part of worship of certain idols. The passage tells us that they set up shrines, sacred pillars and Ashera poles on every high hill and under every green tree. We are told that the king of Egypt came and ransacked Jerusalem. When Rehoboam died his son Abijam succeeded him. We are told that Abijam’s mother was the daughter of Absalom and that Abijam committed the same sins as his father. Abijam reigned for three years before he died and was succeeded by his son Asa. The people of Judah stopped worshiping God and started worshiping idols and taking up pagan religious rituals. It reminds of what we see today. People have been taught that Christianity is superstitious nonsense. So, they do not follow Christian religious practices. Instead, they adopt religious practices that they imagine are those of their ancestors from various pagan religions.
     We are told that Asa, Rehoboam’s grandson did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight. He got rid of the shrine prostitutes, burned the Asherah poles and destroyed the idols his father and grandfather had made. He went so far as to depose his grandmother from the position of queen mother because of the Asherah pole she had made, which he cut down and burned. He was unable to stop the practice of worshiping at local shrines, but he appears to have mostly eliminated idol worship. The Law of Moses said that all worship of God should be at the Tabernacle and after the Temple was built at the Temple, but the people often conducted sacrifices at local shrines. Even when these sacrifices were to God, they were condemned throughout the Old Testament. It took me awhile to realize why this would be. If the people worshiped at various places, they would develop competing understandings of correct practices and what God commanded. By centralizing worship, God could more readily correct improper practices by raising up prophets to condemn them. It is the same reason that we as Christians today should gather with other Christians on a regular basis, so as to test our understanding of God against what the Spirit is saying to others.

     While Peter was staying in Joppa, God sent an angel to appear to a Roman officer named Cornelius, telling him to send to Joppa to summon Peter. We are told that Cornelius was a devout, God-fearing man along with the rest of his household. Cornelius gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God. Cornelius sent three men to Joppa. As they were arriving in Joppa, Peter was praying. It was near lunchtime and Peter was hungry. While a meal is being prepared, Peter has a vision of a sheet being let down from heaven filled with all sorts of unclean animals. A voice tells him to kill and eat them. Peter replies that he has never eaten anything proscribed by Jewish Law as unclean. The voice tells him not to call anything unclean that God has declared clean. This vision repeats three times. As Peter is trying to figure out what the vision means, Cornelius’ messengers arrive. When Peter hears their message he agrees to accompany them.
     We read this passage and the message of the vision seems obvious and I think that it was. We often wish that God would give us such obvious guidance. I think that He often does if we follow the process we see in this passage. The first thing is that Peter was praying, something the context and other passages in Acts suggest he did regularly. So, the first step is regular prayer. The second is that Luke makes a point of telling us that Peter was hungry and that a meal was being prepared. Further, it was around the middle of the day. I don’t know about you, but if I spend time in prayer around lunchtime, I often fall asleep. So, Peter could have dismissed this vision as a dream that was the result of the combination of his hunger with the smells of a meal being prepared. He doesn’t. When the men from Cornelius arrive, it is immediately clear to him what message God was sending him. If we regularly spend time in prayer and worship, we too will see how the dreams and thoughts that God sends our way apply to the decisions we need to make.

     The psalmist tells us that living in harmony with our brothers is a wonderful thing. We need to strive to live in harmony with those around us, especially our fellow believers. This does not mean that we should not correct them when they are wrong, but we must be humble and recognize that we might be the ones who are wrong. We must also recognize that even if we are right on one issue, we have issues where we struggle to follow righteous behavior.

     This proverb tells us that it is dangerous when a fool is eloquent and even worse is when someone in authority lies. I have seen how people begin to believe things they would otherwise see as foolish when someone presents those ideas in a manner that is eloquent and convincing. I have learned not to decide how I feel about an issue on the basis of a speech or a video, but instead wait until I can see the arguments in writing. When I can take the time to read an argument for something, I can more readily see where the weaknesses in the case being made are. I can then explore those weaknesses and discover if they truly make the position wrong, or if they turn out to be not important.