The proverb writer continues his warnings against being seduced into immorality. He tells us that only the truly naive are fooled by its empty promises.
As I read this psalm and it talked about how God’s voice shatters cedars and makes mountains dance I thought about when God spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper. This psalm and that passage from 1 Kings are talking about the same voice of God. It is the same God who thunders and who speaks with the still, small voice. Let us listen to what He has to say, whichever way He chooses to speak.
When Jesus was leaving the Temple grounds He said that the Temple and all of its associated buildings would be completely torn down. As soon as they got some place away from the crowds His disciples asked Him when that would happen. However, while they thought they were asking Him a single question, they actually asked Him two or three questions. They asked Him when the destruction of the Temple would happen, what the signal for His return would be, a the sign of the coming end of the world. We generally think of these last two as being different ways of asking the same question, but His disciples thought the first was asking the same question as well. Part of the reason we have so much trouble figuring out what Jesus was saying here comes from the fact that He was answering all three of these questions at once.
Jesus tells us that there will be wars and threats of wars, that many will come in His name claiming to be Him. Then His followers will be hated and arrested for following Him. He warns us that many will turn away from Him. Jesus warns that false prophets and false messiahs will rise up, performing signs and wonders which will deceive many. We have been warned. There is some positive news here as well. It is only after the Gospel has been preached throughout the whole earth and all peoples have had a chance to hear it that the end will come.
This passage for me tells of one of the great differences between Muslims and Christians. Both believe they should strive to hasten the end of the world. Muslims believe they should hasten the end by preparing for and, when ready, initiating Armageddon. Christians believe that they should hasten the end of the world by seeking out those who have yet to hear the Gospel in order to tell it to them. This reminds me of the line from the song “I Love to Tell the Story”:
I love to tell the story, for some have never heard
The element in these laws which struck me today was how these laws were designed to hold people accountable to take responsibility for things. “If an ox gores…the owner will not be held liable…But suppose the ox had a reputation for goring and the owner had been informed.” In the latter case, the owner was to be held accountable as if himself had gored the person. You cannot avoid responsibility by claiming, “It’s not my doing. The animal got out and killed him.” If you knew your animal might do that sort of thing, it is your responsibility to make sure that it is contained so that it cannot do so. If you fail in your responsibility, you will be treated as if you did it on purpose.
I am trying something different. Previously, I have always placed my comments on the passage in the order Old Testament passage, New Testament passage, Psalm, Proverb. For the near future I am going to post them in the order in which I prepare the comments. This is likely to be the reverse of how I was doing it, but I foresee changing it up depending on what strikes me first. Please let me know what you think of this change.
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, or more. in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
I read today’s passage from proverbs several times because I was bothered by the emphasis on the woman leading the man astray which the proverb writer seems to emphasize a lot. Then I noticed something, the proverb writer points out that the young man lacked sense. He then described how the young man walked in the direction of “her house”. While the woman came out to meet him and seduced him, he went looking for her in the first place. This is like so many of our sins, we blame the source of temptation, even though we intentionally put ourselves in a position to be tempted.
The psalmist calls on heavenly beings to honor the Lord for His glory and His power. The psalmist reminds us that the mere voice of the Lord has power.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is majestic.
As Jesus left the Temple He told His disciples that the time was coming when the Temple would be completely torn down. When they were alone with Jesus they asked Him when that would happen. Jesus answered their question by telling them that many would come claiming to be the Messiah. He also told them that their would be wars and rumors of wars. Then He told them (and us) not to be alarmed. He tells them (and us) that many trials and tribulations will come. His followers will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. False prophets will arise and deceive many. Most importantly, the Gospel will be preached to all parts of the world. There will be false prophets and false messiahs who perform great signs which will deceive even some who are among God’s elect (the implication is that the deception of God’s elect will be short-lived). Jesus warns us that when He returns there will be no mistaking it, everyone will know.
I believe that much of what Jesus is talking about in this passage applies to what happened leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D.. However, I, also, believe that significant portions of it apply to us up until the time when Jesus returns. If we remain faithful we will face persecution. There will be many who will attempt to deceive us (and others) into believing things contrary to what Jesus taught. Most importantly, there will be no question in anyone’s mind when Jesus returns, we do not need to fear that He returned and we missed it.
When God gave commands to the people of Israel concerning justice in their courts, He emphasized the importance of not favoring someone just because they are poor. He warns them against slanting their testimony in favor of the poor. In the same section He commanded them not to be swayed by the crowd to twist justice. It is only after commanding us to return even our enemies property that we find mislaid (or wandered off in the case of animals) and to help when we see someone whose animal is overburdened (this command seems to me to extend to helping someone whose car has broken down) that He commands us to be sure to give justice to the poor in lawsuits. All in all these commands emphasize the importance of the law being applied with an even hand to both the rich and poor, to the powerful and to the helpless.
Do not spread false reports
Do not lie on the witness stand
Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong
Do not twist your testimony in order to side with the crowd
Do not show favoritism to the poor
If you see your enemy having problems, help him/her
Do not deny the poor justice
Avoid false charges
Do not take bribes
Do not oppress the foreigner
There is a thread about how the law should be the same for everyone running through these commands.
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. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
The first interesting thing I noticed in this passage was that the idea of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” is placed here in the context of people fighting and a pregnant woman getting hit and caused to give birth prematurely. The passage says that if no serious injury occurs, the one who hit the woman must pay a fine determined by the woman’s husband and allowed by the court. However, in this situation if there is serious injury, the offender is to suffer loss of life for loss of life, loss of eye for the loss of an eye, etc. This is not a command for general situations where someone causes injury to someone else, but for a case where people are fighting and one of them causes injury to a pregnant woman, and/or her child.
Yesterday’s passage had a command that is often used to condemn Old Testament law. It said that if someone beat their slave and caused injury, but the slave recovered after a few days there should be no punishment. However, in today’s passage we have more on the treatment of slaves. In today’s passage, the command is that if a master knocks out the eye or tooth of their slave, they must set the slave free to compensate the slave for the loss. The passage goes on to suggest that people not be held accountable for the unpredictable behavior of the animals they own. However, if an animal repeatedly demonstrates a tendency to attack people or other animals and the owner allows it to do so again, then the owner shall be held responsible for the damages. Overall, this passage consists of a series of commands about taking responsibility for one’s actions.
There are a few of the commands here that I think are worthy of emphasis. The first is one that is stated twice in this passage: Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner. The passage offers an explanation for this command. It reminds the people that they were foreigners in Egypt and know how it feels to be a foreigner. Another is a warning not to take advantage of widows or the fatherless. God promises that if this warning is not heeded He will avenge them. The final is two passages that I feel make a matched set. The first tells us not to follow the crowd when it favors doing wrong and most definitely to not show favoritism to the poor in a lawsuit. The second says that we should not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits. I think these two show two problems that societies often have…as a matter of fact, I think that societies often have both of them. That is, there is often a tendency to weigh the scales of justice in favor of the poor over the rich in highly publicized cases, while in cases that are out of the limelight, the poor often have trouble receiving justice in the courts. I think there is a principle here about how we should treat people in general. We should show the same level of respect for the opinions offered by all people regardless of their economic situation.
As Jesus was leaving the Temple area, His disciples pointed out the wonderful architecture of the various buildings. Jesus responds by telling them that these wonderful buildings will be completely destroyed. His disciples then asked Him a question that has led to many misunderstandings. They asked Him when that would happen and what would be the signs of His return and the end of the age? Jesus’ answer as recorded by the Gospel writer clearly refers to the coming Jewish revolt that culminated with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. To what extent this reads this way because the Gospel writer saw Jesus’ prophecy applying to what was going on when he wrote the gospel (I believe that the Gospel was written sometime around 60 AD and thus the writer would have been aware of the rising unrest in Judea) or because that was the focus of Jesus’ answer, I do not know. However, that being said, I do believe that a large part of what Jesus was saying was about the coming Jewish revolt against the Romans and what was going to happen in the days leading up to it (which would answer the first part of the disciples’ question).
All of that being said, there are some important points to be noticed here. One of those points is that many will come claiming to be the Messiah, the one who will save us from troubled times. They will perform great signs and wonders in order to deceive. And many will be deceived by them. In addition there will be people proclaiming that this person or that person is the Messiah. Some will proclaim someone who is preaching in the wilderness, who is an outsider, as the Messiah. Others will proclaim someone who is in the “inner rooms”, which I take to mean a religious or political insider/power broker, as the Messiah. Jesus warns us to believe none of them. Another important point is that those who remain faithful to His teachings will be hated and persecuted. He tells us that many will turn away from the faith, that many will lose their love for God because of the increase in wickedness around them. Yet despite all of the trials and troubles for those who believe, the Gospel will be preached throughout the entire world.
Today we have a psalm of praise. The psalmist tells us that the voice of the Lord is powerful and can be heard over roaring waters (such as the sound of waves breaking on the beach or a mighty waterfall). The sound of the Lord’s voice is powerful, it can shatter mighty trees and cause the ground to shake. I will give praise to the Lord because His word shakes the earth to its core.
Once again the proverb writer talks about the danger of adultery. I have not kept careful track, but I am in the seventh chapter of Proverbs and the overwhelming majority of what I have read thus far in the book is a warning against committing adultery. I think this tells us something about the importance of sexual fidelity to our marriages…and avoiding sexual relationships with those married to others.
