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.
When Ahab got home, he told his wife Jezebel what Elijah had done, including how he had killed the prophets of Baal. Jezebel sends a message to Elijah promising to have him killed. When Elijah gets the message he flees for his life. He leaves his servant in Beersheba and flees into the wilderness. At the end of the day, he prays for God to take his life and lies down to sleep. I am not sure what is going on here, except that Elijah is feeling depressed. If he truly wanted to die, why did he flee Jezebel? As he sleeps, God sends him food which Elijah eats. Then he sets out and travels 40 days and 40 nights until he reaches Mt Horeb (which may be another name for Mt Sinai).
When he gets there, he spends the night. The Lord tells Elijah to stand before Him on the mountain. As Elijah stands there a powerful wind hits the mountain and tears some of the stones loose. The passage tells us that God was not in the wind. Then there is an earthquake, but God is not in that either. The earthquake is followed by fire and God is not in that. Finally, there is a gentle whisper, when that happens Elijah covers his face and prepares to talk to God. Once more God asks Elijah why he is there. Elijah responds that he has zealously served God, but the people of Israel have turned from God and killed His prophets and now Elijah is the last one left and they are trying to kill him. God tells Elijah that he still has tasks for him, including anointing Elisha as his successor. God finishes by telling Elijah that He has preserved 7,000 others in Israel who have never worshiped Baal.
Elijah goes and finds Elisha plowing in the field, throws his cloak across Elisha’s back and walks away. Elisha rushes after Elijah and requests permission to say goodbye to his parents before he goes with Elijah. Elijah tells him to do so, but to think about what Elijah has done to him. This sounds to me like Elijah was not particularly enthusiastic about continuing his ministry or about recruiting Elisha as his successor. Elisha on the other hand is very enthusiastic. He slaughters the oxen he was using to plow and uses the wood of the plow to build a fire to cook them. He throws a feast for the village and then goes after Elijah.
This passage begins by telling us that Herod Agrippa started persecuting the believers and had James, the brother of John, killed. When he saw that this made the Jewish leaders happy, he had Peter arrested, intending to give a public trial after the Passover was over. The night before the trial, Peter was sound asleep, fastened with chains to two soldiers. There are more soldiers stationed at the gate to the prison. An angel appears to Peter, wakes him up and tells him to get dressed and follow the angel. Peter, thinking he is experiencing a vision, does as the angel instructs. They exit the prison and begin walking down the street when the angel disappears. Peter realizes that this is actually happening. Peter goes to the home of John Mark’s mother, where believers gathered for prayer. One of the servants, named Rhoda, came to the door, when she recognized Peter’s voice she was so excited she forgot to open the door for him. She went and told the others that Peter was at the door. At first they thought she was crazy, but once she convinced them of what she heard, they decide it must be Peter’s angel. They did not actually go to open the door until they heard Peter continuing to knock. When they let Peter in they were so excited that Peter had to get them to quiet down so that he could talk. He told them to tell James and the other believers what had happened and then went into hiding. How often do we do something like this? Where we believe that someone has experienced a miracle, but don’t believe the full extent of the miracle. How much of a role does that play in our not experiencing more miracles?
His faithful love endures forever.”
The psalmist tells us to give thanks to the Lord for all of the good things He has done for us. He goes through a litany of things that God had done for the children of Israel. As the psalmist is wrapping up, he tells us that God provides food for all living things. Throughout the psalm the psalmist reminds us that God’s love is faithful and endures forever. We should remember this and give Him thanks in all things, at all times.
This proverb tells us that starting a quarrel is like opening a floodgate. We cannot know in advance what how far the destruction will spread, but we can be sure that it will leave destruction in its wake. It is better to stop when we see a quarrel beginning than to push the issue and discover that it leads to the destruction of a relationship (whether ours or someone else’s).