Those who allow themselves to be instructed by wisdom find joy and life. Those who reject the wise advice which leads to the Lord are harming themselves more than any others. By doing so, they may as well be seeking their own death.
Let us sing for joy as we praise the Lord. Use whatever musical talent that you have to glorify His name. My musical talent is limited, but I can sing loudly. If the sound of my voice offends your ears, and it will come as no surprise to me if it does, that just means that you are not singing loud enough.
The psalmist reminds us that all God had to do to bring the entire Universe into being was speak. His very words caused all that is to come into being. Just think what His words can do to whatever problems we may face!
Recently I have come to compare Judas and Peter. When Peter realized that he had betrayed Jesus by denying Him three times, he went away, crying bitterly. He knew he could never make it right. Judas, on the other hand, went to the priests and tried to get them to offer him absolution. He tried to find a way to make it right. When he realized that he could not make it right, he killed himself. Both Peter and Judas thought they knew better than Jesus how it should go. But Judas was stronger than Peter, which led to his destruction. Judas could not live with himself as dependent on God for forgiveness.
I am not quite saying this right. I need to spend some time working out this thought.
The first thing that struck me was that Aaron asked the people to bring him their earrings, which he then used to make the golden calf. When Jacob left Schechem to return to Bethel he asked all of his household to bring him their idols. They, in turn, gave him all of their idols and their earrings. I am confident that there is symbolism in this connection. I am not sure what that symbolism is, but I do not think it is about the evils of earrings (even though I am not a fan of earrings). Just another thing I need to put some thought into and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance about.
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.
Joy will come to those who pay attention to the wise course and then follow it. Those who find wisdom will live and find favor with God. Those who fail to do what is wise are hurting themselves and following a path which leads to death.
It is appropriate when those sing praises to God. Let us constantly seek new ways to praise God because His word holds true. God will display His faithfulness in everything He does. God merely spoke and the universe was created. Everyone on the earth should fear and be in awe of Him. I fear the Lord and am in awe of His majesty. God’s plans will stand firm and cannot be shaken, but when people and nations make plans contrary to His will He disrupts them.
The story of Peter denying Jesus is one which should give us hope. If Peter could be forgiven for denying Jesus three times that night, than I know that I can be forgiven for the times when I have allowed fear of embarrassment lead me to deny my faith in Him. In a way, this passage compares and contrasts Peter’s betrayal of Jesus with that of Judas. Peter went away and wept bitterly over having betrayed Jesus, Judas went out and killed himself. While one can argue that their level of betrayal was different, an important lesson here is that Judas preemptively decided that his sin could not be forgiven and removed the possibility of forgiveness being offered. This is certainly one form of the unforgivable sin which is mentioned several times in the New Testament.
I am torn about what to write about this. The people of Israel turned away from God because they did not receive guidance from God through Moses for an extended period of time. This happened because God had called Moses into His presence. When Moses was absent for longer than they expected, the people of Israel sought guidance from sources other than God. The people of Israel lost patience in waiting for Moses to return. Then they turned to Aaron and told him to make them gods to follow. Notice that they did not ask Aaron to tell them what God wanted them to do. They told Aaron what they wanted him to do. How often do we make this mistake? The mistake of telling our spiritual leaders what we want, rather than asking what God wants of us. Aaron made the companion mistake of doing what the people asked him to do rather than asking God what he, and they, should do.
How often do we do like Aaron and the people of Israel did when they lost (or thought they had lost) their spiritual leader? Do we start to tell our remaining leaders to “make us a god who can lead us”? Or do we call out to God for guidance? If we are in a position of leadership, do we do as the people request? Or do we call them to continue following God? It is much easier to follow a leader who tells us what we want to hear than it is to wait for God’s direction and follow that. And it is much easier to control a group of people when you tell them what they want to hear than if you tell them what God wants them to hear. Let us choose the harder path.
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.
While Moses was up on the mountain receiving instruction from God, the people became convinced that he was not coming back. So, they approached Aaron asking him to make them an idol to follow. Aaron instructed them to bring their earrings to him. Aaron took the gold jewelry they brought him and fashioned it into a statue of a calf. The Israelites declared that this calf was the god which had brought them out of Egypt. Aaron built an altar and declared the next day a festival to worship this calf. God was furious and sent Moses back down the mountain to confront the people. When Moses confronted Aaron about his role in building the calf, Aaron attempted to deflect any blame from himself. First he blames the people and how evil they are. Then he attempts to minimize his own role by saying that he threw the jewelry into the fire and the calf just emerged, as if no further effort was required to make the calf.
I see a few things in this passage that apply today. The first is an unwillingness to wait for God. We get impatient and start looking for some other source of guidance. Closely related to that is our tendency to worship material things. We need to constantly evaluate our lives to look for things which we have made more important to ourselves than God. Is it television? the Internet? my job? It could even be some aspect of church. Then there are Aaron’s excuses. “The people made me do it.” “It just happened.” Aaron tried to lay the blame for what happened other than where it belonged, on himself. How often do I do that? How often do I attempt to blame others for my sins? Or try to say that my sin “just happened”. There is some truth to both of those, but if we stand up to those who pressure us to sin, often times they will see the wrongness of the path they are about to go down and join us in resisting sin. As to sins that “just happen”, they only occur if we have already started down the path toward sinning.
We come to what must have been the worst period in Peter’s life. He followed along after Jesus’ arrest. While he was in the courtyard a servant girl said that he had been with Jesus. Peter denied the charge. He then moved to another location, where another servant girl repeated the allegation. Peter once more denied it in even stronger terms. After a short interval a few people approached Peter and said that his accent gave him away, he must be a follower of Jesus. Peter even more strenuously denied this allegation, calling down curses on those who made the claim. At that moment, he heard the rooster crow and remembered what Jesus had said. Peter was heartbroken at his failure to remain faithful, not only had he not stood by Jesus side, he had denied even knowing Him. How often have I denied my faith to avoid being belittled because of it? The answer is too often. Peter at least had the excuse of fearing for his life. When I have denied my faith, it has been to avoid ridicule. When Peter realized what he had done, he withdrew and wept bitterly. Do I take my denials of Christ as seriously as Peter did his?
In the initial phases of Jesus’ trial before Pilate, Jesus made no response to the charges against Him. When Pilate asked Him if He was the king of the Jews, Jesus replied that those were Pilate’s words. It seems to me that there is some significant theology behind Jesus’ response here, but I am not sure what it is. Jesus neither affirms nor denies that He is the king of the Jews. He tells Pilate that it is Pilate (and others) who use that term. To me this seems to suggest that Jesus is saying that it depends on what you mean by the term “king of the Jews”. That perhaps explains why Jesus does not answer any of the other charges against Him, the specifics behind the charges are true, but the way that they are presented gives them meaning which is false. He refused to engage in discussion in the terms chosen by His opponents.
Let us sing praises unto God, using whatever devices come to our hands. God loves what is just and good. His love fills the whole earth. God’s plans will come to fruition no matter what anyone may attempt to thwart them. I will praise God for He is good to me.
Those who listen to wise instruction and follow it find joy and a bountiful life. They will live a life pleasing to the Lord. Those who despise wisdom cause harm to themselves and are courting death.
