I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

     In today’s passage we learn the extent of Jonathan’s and David’s friendship. Jonathan is a model of being a friend. Jonathan refuses to put family loyalty and ambition above his friendship for someone who has done no ill towards himself or his family. We can compare and contrast King Saul’s attitude towards David and Jonathan’s attitude towards David. King Saul is angry towards David because he believes that David will prevent Jonathan from becoming king. Jonathan wants to know what David has done to deserve death. The thing is that King Saul has become so irrational in his hatred of David that when Jonathan refuses to help him kill David, Saul attempts to kill Jonathan, even though he justifies his hatred of David on the fact that he believes David will prevent Jonathan from taking the throne.
     This passage also tells us something of David’s development as a warrior. When David went up against Goliath, he was uncomfortable with Saul’s armor and sword. Now when he is fleeing Saul and he stops to see the priest Ahimelech, David is happy to take Goliath’s sword, so as to have a sword. This indicates that David has become comfortable with the weapons of war. There is another interesting thing about this encounter. When Ahimelech sees David, he is frightened. There are several possible reasons for this. The first is that Ahimelech knows that King Saul is attempting to kill David and he is afraid either that word of David coming to him will get back to Saul or that David will kill him as payback to Saul for Saul’s efforts to kill David. However, I believe that Ahimelech’s fear comes from another cause. Based on what Ahimelech first says to David, I think that Ahimelech was afraid that King Saul had sent David to kill him secretly. This suggests that King Saul governed Israel through fear, that anyone who developed an independent power base was killed.

     This passage is one of my favorites because it is packed so full of lessons for us. The first one is the question of the relationship between sin and misfortune. When Jesus’ disciples see the man born blind, they can only think of two reasons why this might be so. They thought it must either be punishment for some sin he committed or for some sin his parents committed. Jesus’ answer was that the man was born blind so that God’s power could be demonstrated. This echoes the lesson from the book of Job that not all misfortune is a punishment for sin. I think we are called to see all misfortune as an opportunity to bring glory to God. If the misfortune is to ourselves, we should strive to bring glory to God by continuing to praise God and express confidence in God’s power. If the misfortune is to others, we should strive to bring glory to God by our efforts to alleviate their hardship by the application of the gifts that God has given us, both material and spiritual.
     The next thing we see in this passage is the refusal of some to accept that a miracle has taken place; “This isn’t the man who was born blind, just somebody who looks like him.” We face this every day in this world, people who insist that no miracles ever happen. This leads us to the next point. The religious leaders questioned the man born blind about what had happened. Some of them refused to believe that Jesus could be from God because He performed a healing on the Sabbath, which by their rules was a violation of the command to keep the Sabbath. The religious leaders wanted to deny that a miracle had taken place but the man’s parents corroborated that he had indeed been born blind and everyone could see that he could now see. They call the man back in and tell him that Jesus is a sinner and the man should glorify God. The man’s reply is profound. He says, “I don’t know whether he is a sinner.” The man is saying, “I can’t argue with you about this. I don’t have the training to construct an abstract argument like you can.” Then he says, “I know this. I was blind and now I see.” Here he is saying, “All of your abstract arguments are well and good, but the important fact is that when I was powerless, He helped me. None of your abstract arguments did that.” When the man suggests that they should become Jesus’ disciples, they tell him that they don’t know where Jesus comes from. The man’s response is, “What more do you need to see to believe? I was born blind and this man made me able to see. What other explanation can there be for that than that He is from God?” The religious leaders’ response is to reject the man as uneducated and a sinner who has nothing to teach them. We should be careful not to reject God’s teaching just because we don’t like the messenger.
     Finally, Jesus comes to the man born blind and reveals who He is. He tells the man that He came to give sight to the blind and to show those that think they can see that they are blind. He was telling us that we must not think we are better than “sinners”, we all need Jesus in order to see God’s will. If we claim to be better than those who society sees as sinners (drunks, drug addicts, violent criminals, etc) because we know God’s will, we stand condemned because we have broken His law just as they have. They at least have the excuse of not knowing God’s will. If we admit that we are just as much in need of Jesus’ healing as they, than God will forgive us, just as He will forgive them.

     The psalms today tell us to praise the Lord everywhere because He is powerful and just. These psalms cause me to lift up my heart to praise God today. He raises the poor and the needy to places of prominence, not even forces of nature can stand in His way. Everything that is will move to fulfill God’s will. I will praise the Lord today and every day.

     These three proverbs tell us some important truths. The first one tells us that if we are looking for what is wrong with our lives, we will find it. On the other hand, if we celebrate what is good in our lives, we will find ourselves with nothing to complain about. This is not because it will make that much difference in what actually happens, but because if we focus on the good things in our lives, the troubles will seem unimportant, while if we focus on the trouble in our lives, the good things will seem unimportant. The second and third proverb are linked. The second tells us that it is better to do God’s will and be at peace with little material wealth than to have a lot of material wealth and be constantly concerned about either losing it or getting more. The third tells us that it is better to spend our lives with those we love and who love us and miss out on material pleasures than it is to have those material pleasures surrounded by people we do not like.