This proverb points out an important point. Those who are honest are always honest. They do not even try to use the truth to deceive or mislead. On the other hand those who do not see a problem with using the truth to deceive will lie about anything and everything. Just look at our society, less than a generation ago we began to accept that politicians would say things that were technically true, but which they knew would cause listeners to believe something that was not true. Today, we accept that politicians tell outright lies.
The proverb writer(s) spend a lot of time warning us against mockery. Here he points out that one cannot find wisdom by mocking others, not even those who deserve to be mocked. If we want to find wisdom we must seek understanding. We must seek to understand those we disagree with rather than mock them. Understanding does not mean accepting, nor does it mean agreeing. Often times it means realizing that what we are arguing about is not really what we disagree about.
I would not have put these two psalms together, yet I am glad that One Year Bible Online did. Both of these psalms tell us to sing to the Lord, to praise Him, and to worship Him. In our worship services we spend a lot of time focusing on using singing to praise the Lord, and that is a good thing. However, we often miss something said in the first of these psalms which should influence how we understand worship: “If only you would listen to His voice today!” If we truly believe what we say when we sing praises to God, and if we truly worship Him, we will listen to what He says.
Think about what it is like when a single person meets someone they are attracted to in more than just a sexual way. In that situation, they want to listen to what the other person has to say. They ask questions about what the other person has done, is going to do, wants to do. They want to help that person accomplish their goals in life.
Contrast that with those who are not really into the other person and see them as only a way to gain pleasure. In the latter case the person dominates the conversation, seeks to tell the other person what they have done, what they are going to do, and what they want to do (sometimes this conversation is about doing for the person to whom they are talking). They do not spend any time finding out if that is what the other wants them to do. A significant part of the conversation may even be them telling the other how much they love them. The key thing is that they spend no time listening to the other person.
How often is our worship more like the latter than the former? When we seek to worship God, let us remember that true worship involves listening to the object of our worship.
In Matthew 10:33 Jesus says that He will deny before the Father everyone who denies Him before men. Yet, here we have Peter very emphatically denying Christ, not just once, but three times. This was certainly the type of circumstance that Jesus was referring to when He said that. The fact that Peter did this here and went on to be used by God to spread the Gospel gives all of us hope, because there are few among us, if any, who have not at one time or another done something similar to what Peter did here. I know that there have been times where I have failed to stand up and acknowledge my faith in Christ. There have even been times when I have denied that faith to avoid ridicule. The story of Peter’s actions here tells me that God will forgive me my weakness.
There are a lot of lessons to be learned about serving God in this passage. However, the one I want to emphasize today is one which I rarely hear talked about. When God’s messenger told Gideon that God was with him, Gideon replied, “Then why has all this bad stuff happened? Where are the miracles? And why has God allowed the Midianites to oppress us?”
God’s messenger responded by telling Gideon, “If things are so bad, do something about it!”
Gideon responds by saying, essentially, “What can one man do? I can’t make a difference, not even with the help of those who will listen to me.”
And here is the lesson, God’s messenger tells Gideon that He will be with him and give him the ability to succeed. There is a lot more to be said about this passage, but the message is clear: Don’t just complain about how bad things are, do something about it. If you believe that things are bad take what action you can.
It is worth noting that Gideon did not start out by going to battle against the Midianites, the people he had initially complained about oppressing the people. No, Gideon started by tearing down the idols worshiped by his clan. He called on the people to return to faith in God. Whatever the problems we are called to battle, the first step is to call on the people of God to repent of their sins.
Truly honest witnesses do not shape their testimony in order to deceive their listeners. On the other hand, once you realize that someone has distorted the truth in order to mislead you, you should expect that everything they say is similarly deceptively worded. Those who mock the beliefs of others may seek for wisdom, but they will not be able to find it. We see this around us all the time in people who mock Christianity as “superstitious nonsense” who then, in their search for meaning, fall prey to things that are truly superstitious nonsense.
Let us praise God today, let us sing to Him with thanksgiving. Let us kneel, surrendering completely to God’s authority, and worship Him. He will watch over us and care for us, if only we listen to His voice and follow His instructions. Let us not harden our hearts and determine to follow our own will rather than God’s. He desires what is best for us and if we follow His instructions they will bring us joy. I will listen to His voice today (and every day)!
Sing a song to the Lord and rejoice! Let us call on all of the earth to honour God, because that is the path to prosperity and happiness for all. The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. If people would only do as He commands, misery and misfortune would be no more.
Whenever I read of Peter’s denial of Christ, I sympathize with him and it gives me renewed hope for myself. I know there have been times when I have denied Christ because of social pressure just as Peter did here. It gives me great hope to realize that Peter was forgiven for his denial. However, the passage also reminds me that Peter suffered great grief from his denial. It gives me great grief that I have at times denied my faith in Christ to avoid ridicule. I will continue to ask God’s Spirit to move within me to keep me from doing it again.
I have read the story of Gideon many times. When the angel came to Gideon and told him that God was with him, Gideon asked why all the bad things had happened to God’s people. The angel’s answer to Gideon is one for all of us who see injustice and people suffering in this world. The angel told Gideon, “I am sending you!” If you want to know why there is wrong and suffering in this world, it is because you (and I) have not done what God has called us to do. Rather than ask God why there is suffering in this world, let us ask God what He wants us to do about it.
Gideon’s reply is all too often ours, “I am too insignificant to help.” But God has an answer for that as well. God tells us, “I will be with you.” Gideon asked for a sign that this message was indeed from God. Let us not be afraid to ask God to confirm what He is telling us. He will do so, but once He has confirmed the message, let us act on it.
I am still running behind in getting these finished and published. Today it is because my main computer is not working properly. I am pretty sure I can fix it, but I did not have the time today. On the other hand, in some ways this break in my routine has helped me see these passages in a different light.
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.
Once more the Israelites did evil in God’s sight and He allowed them to be oppressed by raiding peoples, primarily Midianites. Whenever the Israelites would plant crops, raiders would come and camp in the land, destroying the crops and taking the Israelites’ livestock. This left the Israelites with little to eat. They called out to the Lord for help and He heard them. God sent a prophet to tell the people how they had failed to follow His commands and had worshiped the gods of those other peoples among whom they lived.
God, also, sent a messenger to Gideon. The messenger (the word translated angel means something like “divine messenger”) told Gideon that the Lord was with him. Gideon responded that if the Lord was with him, how come the Israelites were being oppressed by the Midianites? And why didn’t they see the great miracles that their ancestors had told of? The messenger then told him to go with the strength that he had and rescue Israel from the Midianites, God was sending him. Gideon responds that he came from the weakest clan of his tribe and his family was the weakest of his clan, how could he defeat the Midianites? The messenger told Gideon that God would be with him and he would defeat the Midianites as if there was only one of them.
Gideon then asked the messenger for a sign that this was really a message from God. He requested that the messenger remain until he could return with his offering. The messenger agrees to wait for him to return. When Gideon returned with his offering (which from the description would have taken some time to prepare), the messenger told him to lay it out on a rock, pouring the broth over it. Once Gideon had done this, the messenger touched the offering with the tip of his staff and fire burst forth from the rock consuming it and the messenger disappeared. Gideon was terrified because he had seen the angel of God face to face. God told him not to be afraid, that he would not die because of this.
That night God told Gideon to destroy his father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole that was next to it. He was then to build an altar to God in its place and sacrifice one of his father’s bulls upon it, using the wood from the Asherah pole for the fire. Gideon took 10 servants and followed these instructions during the night out of fear of his family and the townspeople. When the townspeople discovered what he had done, they demanded that his father turn him over to them to be killed. His father asked them what was the point of worshiping Baal if Baal was unable to defend his altar?
Shortly after this a large force of the raiding armies invaded Israelite land once more. Gideon sent out a call to arms to the tribes in the vicinity. While Gideon was waiting for the Israelites to assemble, he asked God for a sign. Gideon placed a fleece on the ground over night. He asked God that if he, Gideon, was to rescue the Israelites from the Midianites the fleece would be wet in the morning, but the ground would be dry. In the morning, the fleece was so wet that Gideon wrung a bowl full of water out it, yet the ground was dry. But Gideon was not satisfied, he asked for a second sign. Once more he put a fleece on the ground over night. This time he asked that the ground be damp and the fleece dry. Again, Gideon received the sign he had asked for and the fleece was dry.
There is a lot in this passage. However, there is something I never noticed before. When the Israelites cried out to God for deliverance, God sent a prophet to tell them that they had sinned. A casual reading of the passage might lead one to think that the prophet was Gideon, but it does not read that way to me. As I read this passage today, I envisioned Gideon hearing this prophet speak and being inspired to serve God and turn from idol worship. Then he receives a visitor who encourages him to not only turn from idol worship, but to fight back against it. As I read the passage today, it struck me that there was a combination of actual physical messengers from God and the Spirit moving in Gideon’s heart. I think there are a series of steps we can see in this passage.
First God sent a prophet out to call the people of Israel to repentance. One of those who heard and heeded this call was Gideon. But he was not alone, others throughout Israel heard and responded to the call. However, none of them quite knew what to do. Then God sent a messenger to Gideon who told him to stand up for what he believed in, God would be with him. Thus encouraged to act, the first thing Gideon did was destroy the places where those closest to him conducted idol worship. Word certainly spread of Gideon’s actions and Gideon was emboldened by his success. When the Midianites returned once more, Gideon sent out a call to those who trusted God to join him in confronting them. The point is that when Gideon felt God’s call to serve Him, he did not start with attacking those oppressing his people. Gideon started by tearing down the altars where he and his family had worshiped idols and setting up a place to worship God in their place. He started locally and led by example.
Those who had accompanied Judas arrested Jesus and led Him to the high priest’s house. Peter followed behind at a distance. Some of those there lit a fire in the courtyard and Peter joined them. A servant girl saw Peter sitting there and told the others that he had been with Jesus. Peter told her emphatically that he did not know Him. After a bit, someone else said to Peter that he must be one of them. Again Peter denied it, speaking even more emphatically. About an hour later, a third person said that Peter must be one of Jesus’ followers because he was a Galilean. Peter denied this even more strongly (and possibly loudly). At that moment the rooster crowed and Jesus turned and looked at Peter. It was at that point that Peter recalled that Jesus has said that he would deny Him three times. Peter left the courtyard and wept bitterly. Do I feel the same level of shame and remorse for those times I have denied Christ? I am afraid that I do not and did not, but I am striving to learn to care so deeply that in the future I will. It seems strange to say that I wish I was more ashamed of what I had done, but perhaps we would all be better off if instead of attempting to feel less embarrassed by the bad things we have done, we strove to feel more embarrassed about them.
At daybreak the council of elders of the people met together and had Jesus brought before them. They asked Him if He was the Messiah. Jesus answered that if He told them they would not believe Him. And if He asked them they would not answer (I believe a reference to their response when He asked them by what authority John the Baptist baptized). He concluded by saying that going forward the Son of Man would be seated on the right hand of God. The council then asked if He was saying that He was the Son of God. Jesus replied, “You say that I am.” At this the council needed no more testimony, they had heard Jesus say that which they considered blasphemy.
The council took Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor, and told him that Jesus was preaching insurrection against Rome. Pilate asked Jesus if He was the King of the Jews. Jesus answered Pilate, “You have said so.” Pilate returned to the Jewish council and told them that he found no basis to charge Jesus. The council replied that Jesus had stirred up riots from Galilee to Jerusalem. When Pilate realized that Jesus was a Galilean, he sent Him to Herod who was in Jerusalem at the time. Herod was happy for the chance to question Jesus, hoping that He would perform a miraculous sign. Herod questioned Jesus for some time and got no answer, while the Jewish leaders hurled accusations against Jesus. Herod and His soldiers began ridiculing and mocking Jesus. Finally Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate.
The psalmist calls on us to joyfully sing praises to the Lord. This is another one of those psalms which I cannot summarize a lesson out of that says it any shorter than what the psalmist wrote. Let us praise the Lord and sing to Him. I will proclaim the good news that He saves. I want to learn to do this every day to anyone who will listen. I want those who know me to either be saying the same thing or, “Yeah, I got it, you think God can help me with my problems.” I not only think He can help, I know that He can help.
The first proverb tells us that either we are honest and do not lie or we breathe lies. I do not think it is quite that simple, but if we do not strive to always be completely honest, we will end up lying continuously.
The second proverb tells us that if we mock others in our attempt to find wisdom, wisdom will elude us. While those who strive to understand others will learn easily.
