Those who plan to do evil are lost. As long as they do so there is no hope for their redemption. Those who plan to do good will find love and faithfulness. It is not talk which leads to prosperity, that requires actual work, and hard work at that.
Today we finish psalm 104 which talks about the grandeur and might of God. Today’s psalm reminds us that every living thing depends upon God for food. When God completely withdraws His favor from any living being, that being dies. The last three verses of this psalm make an excellent prayer and meditation:
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
I will praise my God to my last breath!
May all my thoughts be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let all sinners vanish from the face of the earth;
let the wicked disappear forever.
John the Baptist makes many points we should pay attention to when he answers his disciples concerns over people going to Jesus rather than coming to John. However, the most important point he makes is that we should never feel jealous when another person becomes more prominent in doing God’s work than we are. We can only receive honor for serving God if it is given to us by God. John’s point is that we will be as prominent in the Church as God wills. Any attempt to have greater prominence than God wills for us will have us serving Satan rather than God.
The story told here is a terrible tragedy with no heroes in it anywhere. The men of the town of Gibeah behaved atrociously in how they attempted to treat the traveling Levite and in how they treated his concubine. The Levite behaved terribly in giving them his concubine. The men of the rest of the tribe of Benjamin behaved badly by choosing to defend the men of Gibeah. The men of the rest of Israel behaved badly by seeking to destroy all of Benjamin for the crimes of the men of Gibeah. All in all this story shows us how our outrage over an injustice can easily get out of hand. In many ways this story is one we need preached in our country today.
Those who plot evil have already made a mistake and it will only get worse from there. Those who plan to do good receive love and kindness (this is not just a matter of having good intentions, but making actual thought-out plans). It is hard work that leads to success and profit, talking about what you are going to do accomplishes nothing.
For a period of time, John the Baptist and Jesus were both preaching and baptizing in the Judean countryside. Apparently a Jew used the example of what Jesus was doing to make a point in an argument with some of John’s disciples. They went to John to complain that Jesus was taking followers away from John and his teaching. John told them that this was the way it should be. John says something here that each of us should echo when it comes to Jesus. We must become less and less so that He can become greater and greater. Let us strive so that everything we do turns attention not to ourselves, but to Jesus.
This is a fairly horrific story. There is an interesting point that comes up in several different ways in this story. The Levite passed by and traveled later into the day to avoid staying among strangers. He chose instead to stay among those who he thought were more like himself and thus safer to stay with. The people of that town betrayed that common bond and committed a heinous crime. When the rest of the people of Israel heard of this atrocity, they sent word to the tribe of Benjamin requesting that they surrender the men of this town for justice. Rather than bringing their close kinsmen to justice for their crime against more distant kinsmen, they came to their defense. The end result of their decision to fight against their kinsmen being brought to justice was tragedy for the entire tribe of Benjamin. Similar things happen in the world today when people come to the defense of those undeserving of such defense because of some tenuous claim of kinship. When a group of people stands up to prevent justice being served on those who have acted wickedly, things will not end well.
I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. 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.
Today’s passage contains a tragic story. A Levite was traveling from Bethlehem to the remote hill country of Ephraim with a servant and his concubine. He stopped for the night in Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. Initially, no one took them in, but as it was getting late a man who was originally from the hill country of Ephraim invited them to stay at his house. Actually, the man insisted that they do so rather than staying in the town square. The Levite and those traveling with him went to stay with the man. While they were eating the men of the town started pounding on the door of the house demanding that the Levite be brought out to them so that they could rape him. The man the Levite was staying with offered the men of the town his daughter and the Levite’s concubine, but the men of the town did not listen to him. The Levite finally forced his concubine out the door. The men of the town raped her throughout the night and let her go at daybreak. She returned to the house the Levite was staying at and died on the doorstep.
This story has many elements that are wrong. First, the men of this town demanding to be given the visiting man so that they could rape him. This is especially significant because the Levite chose to travel later in the day to stay in a town of the Israelites rather than in a town of non-Israelites. Then we have the Levite’s host offering the men his daughter and the Levite’s concubine. Finally, we have the Levite forcing his concubine out to the men to be raped to death. All in all a tragic story with no real good guys (although the man who took the Levite and his family in for the night comes close).
When the Levite got home, he sent messages to all of the tribes of Israel calling for something to be done. The tribes gathered and vowed to punish the city of Gibeah for its crime. It is worth noting that the crime was not just the rape and murder of the Levite’s concubine and the attempt to rape the Levite. It is clear from the story that the men of Gibeah routinely preyed upon travelers. Once they had assembled their army the Israelites sent word to the tribe of Benjamin requesting that they turn the men of Gibeah over for punishment. Rather than doing so, the Benjamites gathered to defend Gibeah. The Israelites gathered their army and vastly outnumbered the Benjamites. On the first two days of battle the Benjamites inflicted heavy casualties on the rest of the Israelites. On each of those days, the Benjamites killed almost as many of the Israelite army as there were Benjamite fighting men. On the third day, the Israelites withdrew for a day of prayer and fasting. After the day of fasting, the Israelites returned to attack Gibeah. This time they set an ambush. When the Benjamites came out to fight them, the main army retreated as if being defeated like the first two days of battle. The Benjamites pursued them. Once the Benjamites had been drawn away from the city the force set in ambush entered the city and sacked the city. At the moment the Benjamites realized that the city was being sacked, the main army counterattacked. The overwhelming majority of the Benjamite army was killed that day, but a small force of about 600 fled to a stronghold. When the remnant of the Benjamite army withdrew to a stronghold, the Israelite army destroyed all of the Benjamite cities and towns, putting everyone to the sword.
Jesus left Jerusalem and spent some time in the Judean countryside where He preached and His disciples baptized people. John the Baptist was preaching and baptizing not far from where Jesus was (at least that is how the passage reads to me). John’s disciples got into an argument with “a certain Jew” over ceremonial washing. This argument led them to return to John and ask him about Jesus. They were apparently concerned because Jesus was gaining honor that they thought should be going to John the Baptist. John the Baptist replied to them that this was as it should be. His purpose was to prepare people for Jesus’ coming and to point the way to Him. John finishes his words to the disciples with something we should all take to heart and live by, “He must become greater, I must become less.”
While John the Baptist was speaking in terms of a ministry that had become a big deal before Jesus was on the scene, nevertheless we also should approach life like that. I strive to live my life so that any glory that comes from my actions goes to Christ, not to myself. I just realized that I need to work on that mindset for my approach to this blog. I have been disappointed in the number of hits I have been getting. However, my disappointment was because I was not gaining a following. I need to remind myself that I do not truly want a following. I want more people to follow Jesus Christ. If people come to follow Jesus through reading my blog, or become better followers of Him that way, then God be praised. If people are reading my blog because they want to follow my writings, I have failed.
Today’s psalm is a continuation of yesterday’s and continues the theme of “Let all that I am praise the Lord.” There is much in this to raise my spirits and lead me to praise the Lord.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
I will praise my God to my last breath!
May all my thoughts be pleasing to him,
That last phrase shall be my prayer for today. I will pray to God that He guide my thoughts this and every day so that every last one of them may be pleasing to Him.
Magrat sitting on the catnip
There are three proverbs in today’s passage. The first tells us that those who plan to do evil will be lost, while those plan to do good find faithfulness and love. This explains why so often evil plans fail. IF you study history, you will see time and again evil people who make plans to do great evil (and they often do do great evil) but their plans fail because of some action which was an obviously bad idea.
The second and third are linked. The path to profit is hard work applied with wisdom. Those who are all talk end in poverty and the work of fools yields nothing of value.
This passage tells a sorry story. We have a Levite who is traveling with his concubine and a servant. He chooses to press on late in the day rather than stop among non-Israelites. He proceeds to a town of Benjamin, where at first no one offered to take them in, even though all they needed was shelter (they had sufficient supplies to feed themselves and their beasts of burden). Then when an old man does offer them shelter, the town troublemakers show up and demand that the old man send the traveler out so that they can rape him. It is clear that this behavior is not unanticipated because the old man had insisted that the travelers not spend the night in the town square. The old man offers his daughter and the traveler’s concubine to these hooligans (this sounds, and is, horrible, but we must remember that the code of hospitality of that day called for defending one’s guests at all cost), but they refuse the offer. Finally the traveler (who nothing in this tale reflects well on) shoves his concubine out the door. The hooligans rape her all night long. At daybreak, they let her go and she manages to return to the house where her husband was staying where she dies. He comes out and discovers that she is dead when she does not respond to his command to get up so that they can travel on. When he gets home, he cuts up her body and sends the parts throughout Israel (apparently with a message as to what happened).
The men of Israel gather and decide that this crime must not go unpunished. They send word to the tribe of Benjamin demanding that the troublemakers who did this be surrendered for execution. Rather than surrender these men, the tribe of Benjamin rallies to their defense. The men of the rest of Israel go up against the men of Benjamin and fight a three day battle. For the first two days, the men of Benjamin inflict heavy losses on the rest of the Israelites. On the third day, the Israelites set a trap for the men of Benjamin and slaughter them.
When I read this passage today, I noticed something I had not noticed before. These troublemakers had been causing problems for some time and no one had done anything about it. The old man was afraid for a stranger to stay the night in the town square. This indicates that he knew that the town troublemakers would have harmed the man if he was left without shelter. While it is possible that no one in the town of Gibeah was able to stand up to these troublemakers and no one outside was aware of their crimes, it seems likely that the neighboring towns were aware of it and let it go since their targets were primarily outsiders. This story points up an important lesson. When a community allows troublemakers to get away with their actions, those troublemakers will get more and more brazen until their actions lead to the destruction of that community. There are groups today that defend bad behavior by members of their community. What they fail to understand is that by doing so, they encourage that bad behavior to get worse. In addition, at some point, that bad behavior will get so bad that those outside of the group will feel the need to take action. When the outsiders take action, they will target not only the troublemakers but the entire group.
In this passage Jesus and John the Baptist are conducting their ministries not far from each other. John’s disciples approach John concerned because more people are going to Jesus than are coming to John. John is not concerned. He tells his disciples that this is as it should be, that he had told them that he was not the Messiah. While this situation is unique (after all, Jesus was the Messiah), it provides a lesson for all of us. We should all be happy when another eclipses us in the public eye when they do so by bringing glory to God.
I just discovered that yesterday’s Psalm was only verses 1-23 of this psalm, not the entire psalm as I blogged. Still there is a lot in this psalm. Everything on earth is dependent on God. God supplies food for all of the creatures of this earth. God takes pleasure in all that He has made and as a result, we should be good stewards of His creation. And it contains what I am striving to make my prayer each day:
May all my thoughts be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
…
Let all that I am praise the Lord.
These proverbs today are so telling about the world. They are such complete, “No? Duh!” comments that they almost seem silly to put into the Book of Proverbs. Yet, there are many people who do the opposite of what they say. Those who plan to do evil come to bad ends, while those who plan to do good are praised. Then we have to advice that work brings profit, but merely talking leads to poverty. Many people have great ideas but they only talk about them and never do them. It does not matter how great your idea is, if you don’t put in the work, nothing will come of it.
