For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have been convicted over the last few weeks to seek to develop a disciplined prayer life. It is still a work in progress. Please pray for me, that the Holy Spirit may show me how to pray in a disciplined manner.
When we receive good news from far away, it provides relief greater than similar news from nearby. This is largely due to the fact that good news does not travel as far, let alone as fast, as bad news.
When the godly stop standing up to the wicked and telling them that they are wicked, all of society becomes polluted. At that point there ceases to be a place where people can learn what is true and right. This is just as destructive to the health of a society as when there are no sources of clean water to drink.
When you obtain honours which you sought out for yourself it leaves you feeling uncomfortable and bloated, similar to the way you feel when you eat too much sweets. If you persist in seeking honours for yourself, it will sicken your soul in the same way in which too much sugar will sicken your body.
The psalmist tells us that righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne. The truth of the matter is that these are the only stable foundation for any government. Just as God promised to punish the descendants of David who failed to keep His commandments, so too will He overthrow governments which fail to deliver righteousness and justice.
This passage gives clear instructions for dealing with our fellow believers, in particular those who need to be called to task for their actions. We are to treat them all with respect. If the person is older than us, we should approach them as we would our own parents if they had done something wrong/foolish (remember the command to honour our father and mother). Those who are our age or younger we should approach as if they were our sibling, that is with love and concern for their well-being (not with the anger that so many of us have towards our siblings because of slights from childhood, perceived and real).
Further, we as members of the Church should care for those widows who are unable to care for themselves. However, we should first take care of those in our own family…and we should push those who have widows in their family to take care of those women. Those women who are still able to care for themselves should be encouraged to seek work to do so. In many ways this passage gives a clear lesson on how the Church should deal with all who have needs. First, it should encourage, to the point of demanding, that their families provide for them to the best of their ability. Second, it should encourage, to the point of demanding, that those in need find ways in which they can provide for themselves to the greatest extent they are able. This may involve finding them jobs, or tasks they can be paid to do. Most importantly, those the Church supports need to be encouraged, to the point of demanding, to fill their time with constructive activity, rather than with sticking their noses into other people’s business.
As I read today’s passage a realization struck me that has been growing on me as I have read through the Book of Jeremiah this year. When Jeremiah was prophesying there were two groups in the government of Judah. One group was composed of men who feared God to some degree and listened to Jeremiah’s prophesies. The other group was generally stronger and had the ear of the royal family (usually the king, but there are places where the king appeared prepared to act against them). The second group appears to have considered religion a tool for governing the people but nothing more. So, basically the government of Judah was split between men who honoured God to one degree or another and men who did not actually believe in God at all. The men who were in the primary positions of power appear to have been mostly from the second group with the first group composed mostly of those in secondary and support roles.
