I don’t think there is any way to say it any clearer than the proverb writer. Righteous living is rewarded with life. Wicked actions are rewarded with more sin and ultimately with death.
Those who are kind to the poor will be rewarded. God will rescue them when they are in trouble. If we use what God has blessed us with to aid those who are struggling in life we will live safe and secure. Let us turn to God and confess our sins when troubles strike. Even if everyone else betrays our trust, God will judge us fairly.
Once more Jesus asked His disciples to feed a large crowd and once more they asked how they can feed this many people. It had not been that long since they witnessed Jesus feed the five thousand. In the meantime they had witnessed Jesus perform many other miracles. If the disciples, who were with Jesus every day, struggled to understand the power He commanded (and which He had delegated to them), is it any wonder that we have trouble believing that He can work such miracles through us?
On the other hand, we do have the writings telling us of these things. There is something to be said for being able to read about what Jesus did. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to do any better. We can read about all of the miraculous things which Jesus did, and we can read about how He promised that His followers would be able to do even more. Yet we still find it difficult to believe that God will perform such miracles through us.
The beginning of this passage says that “On the tenth day of the appointed month in early autumn, you must deny yourselves.” The translation notes say that could be translated as “you must fast.” This is a reminder to me that I do not fast enough, nor do I deny myself in other ways enough. There is spiritual and physical benefits from fasting and other forms of self-denial. From time to time I have attempted to learn the spiritual discipline of fasting. It is one of two ways in which I am still struggling with my spiritual life. I do not pray as much as I should, and I do not fast (occasionally I will fast for half a day, but that is not really fasting). I will continue to strive to learn to do this, but I have never been very good at self-denial of any sort.
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.
This passage is a reminder that while acquiring wealth offers a bulwark against life’s storms, living a righteous life is more important than any amount of money.
This psalm follows on the proverbs passage so well. Its beginning so perfectly captures the message of the proverbs I just read. While wealth provides a bulwark against life’s storms, the key to making the most of it is to use that wealth to help the poor face those same storms. If we serve the Lord by using whatever wealth comes our way to assist those less fortunate than ourselves, God will bless us in ways beyond imagining (those blessings may include wealth, but are not primarily wealth).
This passage concludes with Jesus feeding another large crowd starting with a small amount of food. Once again when Jesus asks His disciples to feed the crowd, they object that they cannot find enough food in the remote region they are in. And once again, Jesus asks them to share what little food they have. Jesus had the crowd sit on the ground, then He took the loaves of bread they had, blessed them, and gave them to distribute among the people. When He did this someone brought forth a few small fish, which Jesus blessed and gave to the disciples to distribute as well. When all had eaten their fill, they collected more leftovers than the amount of food they had started with.
The disciples had seen Jesus feed a large crowd with a small amount of food once before and they had seen His many miracles. They had even been empowered by Him to go out and perform similar miracles. Yet, when He asked them to feed the crowd, their initial reaction was, “How can we do that?” How often are we the same way? We have seen how God has provided for our needs and how He has accomplished wonders, yet when He calls on us to serve others, all too often, our response is, “I do not have enough money, enough skill, enough…?” Isn’t it time we learned that when God calls on us to act, not only will He give us enough to do what He asks, but we will usually end up with a surplus?
This passage contains a prohibition against anyone among the people of Israel offering sacrifices anywhere but at the Tabernacle (whether to God or otherwise). This prohibition served two purposes. First it was to ensure that no one offered sacrifices to other gods while pretending that they were sacrifices to God. The second purpose was to ensure the unity of the people. Overall this part of this passage is a reminder of the importance of worshiping within the larger body of those who serve God. It is important to gather together with our fellow believers on a regular basis to worship God. It is too easy to drift into self-serving understandings of God if we do not test our beliefs with others who are also striving to serve God.
The passage then tells the people of Israel not to fall into any of the many negative sexual practices of the people of the land of Canaan. It is in this passage which God told the Israelites that homosexual sex was wrong, but homosexual sex was fairly far down the list. In a way if we look at this, we see that by the time we get to God forbidding homosexual behavior we have already broken many of his prohibitions about improper sexual behavior. All too often, we as Christians look the other way at what we consider “lesser” sexual sins, but draw the line at homosexual behavior. If we wish to be a prophetic witness to society about sexual behavior we need to be faithful on all aspects of sexual behavior, not just homosexual acts.
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.
God tells Moses to instruct the people that they are to conduct all of their sacrifices at the Tabernacle, in the presence of the priests. The purpose of this law is to prevent the people from continuing to offer sacrifices to goat idols (the word translated as “idols” could also be translated as “demons”). God then repeats the command He gave to Noah after the flood, instructing the people of Israel not to eat any meat with the blood in it.
The next portion gives a list of people with whom it is wrong to have sexual relations. That list includes the children and siblings of either of your parents. It then gives a list of women married to someone else that are forbidden as sexual partners, eventually, after listing various people whose wives are forbidden sexual partners, it makes it clear that any woman married to someone else is a forbidden sexual partner. The fact that it lists it this way makes it clear that there are no “special case” exceptions to the law against adultery. There are several other practices listed here as detestable. They include sexual relations between people and animals and sexual relations between two men. They, also, include sacrificing one’s children and marrying sisters while both are living. This last is interesting since Jacob, also named Israel, did that very thing.
Some years back I read a column that suggested that these commands free us up by clearly channeling our sexual desires. The columnist suggested that our sex drive is such that without some clear guidelines as to acceptable sexual partners we will expend large amounts of mental energy on satisfying that drive, energy that could be better used in other areas. I think that the columnist made a good point, although I think there is more to these instructions than just that. Sex distorts human relationships, not necessarily in a bad way. My relationship with my wife is made better and stronger by our sexual intimacy. However, not all human relations should have a sexual element. By taking certain people off of the list of potential sexual partners, the commands in this section allow relationships and friendships to develop that do not contain the sexual element, something that is necessary for a healthy society (and something that is contributing to our society’s breakdown, since as time goes by there are fewer and fewer relationships that our society views as not having a sexual element).
Jesus left Galilee for a time and went into the region around Tyre (perhaps to get away from the crowds, since the writer made earlier references to Jesus attempting to withdraw with His disciples and being followed by the crowds). While there, He attempted to keep secret where He was staying. However, this was not possible. A woman from the area whose daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and begged Him to heal her daughter. Since she was a Gentile, Jesus told her that it was not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. This was a very nasty insult, Jesus basically said that she was a dog. Her response however was to accept the insult and tell Him that the dogs get to eat the scraps that fall to the floor. Jesus commends her for her answer and tells her that her daughter is healed (as indeed she was). We need to emulate this woman and acknowledge before God that we are sinful, evil creatures not worthy of His grace. But, we also need to recognize, as this woman did, that God has overwhelming love for us and wants to redeem us from our sin.
After this Jesus returned to the region around the Sea of Galilee. While He was there some people brought a deaf man to Him requesting that He heal him. Jesus took the man aside and restored both his hearing and his ability to talk (although modern experience suggests that most of the man’s problem with speaking was a result of being unable to hear himself talk). Jesus instructed those who witnessed this not to tell anyone, but the more He asked people to keep His miracles quiet, the more they talked about them. This is another piece to the puzzle that has been bothering me lately, why don’t we see more miracles in the Church today? The answer is that all too often we in the Church are trumpeting these miracles. There is too much of an element of self-promotion in what little I do hear about miracles. I am not quite sure where I am going with this, but it is clear from the Gospel accounts that it was not Jesus or His disciples who spread the word about His miracles.
Today’s passage concludes with the Feeding of the Four Thousand. A crowd had gathered to hear Jesus preach. After three days, Jesus called His disciples together, concerned that if He sent the crowd away hungry some of them would collapse on the way. Despite having witnessed the feeding of the five thousand not that long before, the disciples wanted to know where they could find enough food for this large of a crowd in such a remote place. Once again Jesus asked them how much food they had with them. When they told Him they had seven loaves, He had the crowd sit down on the ground, gave thanks, broke the bread and gave it to His disciples to distribute. Everyone ate and was satisfied. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of leftover food. Jesus then sent the crowd away and got into a boat with His disciples. How often are we like the disciples? How often do we wonder how we can possibly get through a situation we are in, a situation similar to one that God provided us miraculous deliverance from just a short time earlier? We are as slow on the uptake as the disciples (which is certainly to be expected).
Oh, the joys of those who are kind to the poor!
The Lord rescues them when they are in trouble.
What more is there to say? I will strive to help those who are struggling, even when I am not sure how I am going to pay all of my bills. I have not been in a position where I wondered where my next meal was coming from, so I am not among those who are truly poor.
Sword and dagger duel
