It is interesting how often the proverb writers contrast the wise vs the mocker. In this case they contrast the wise, who accept discipline, to the mockers, who refuse correction. The mockers refuse to accept the idea that they might be wrong, or have done wrong. The wise embrace receiving a penalty for their mistakes because they know it will make it easier for them to avoid repeating those mistakes.
The psalmist calls on us to sing praises to God. Accompanying our singing with whatever instruments come to hand, especially those which are loud and exuberant. We are to do this both because of the wonderful things God has done for us and because He has commanded us to do so. The psalmist goes on to remind us that if we are struggling in this life we need to cry out to God for rescue and listen to the instructions He gives us.
After being confronted for associating and eating with notorious sinners (read that as, “partying with”), Jesus tells three parables. Our tendency is to look at the first two separately from the third. That is not wrong because there are lessons to be learned from the third which are different than those to be learned from the other two. However, all three are teaching variations on the same lesson.
The first two teach us that we should spend more effort seeking to bring the lost back than we do on safeguarding those who are not lost. This runs counter to our human nature. When we have lost one of a group of things, we spend a small amount of effort to get it back and then spend greater efforts to safeguard that which we still have. We have a tendency to give up searching for what we have lost after a short time. That is fine when we are talking about material things, but when it comes to people, we should never quit seeking to “find” them for God.
Then there is the parable of the prodigal son. It too teaches us that the return of the lost is a source of great joy. One part of this parable that is often misrepresented is the reaction of the older brother. His initial reaction shows him in a poor light, but often those who expound on this passage assume that his initial reaction continues after his father talks to him. I think that this is making an assumption about his actions that Jesus is not intending. When we find ourselves in the position of the older brother (and sooner or later all of us who have chosen to follow Jesus will do so), how do we react when God comes to us and tells us to embrace our returned, and celebrated, rebellious brother (or sister)? Do we accept the joy which God, and others, feel at this lost one returning home and join the party? Or do we turn away from God in anger and jealousy because someone else is receiving greater attention than we are?
It is interesting to picture what it must have been like for the people of Jericho. They were frightened when they heard that the Jordan had stopped its flow to allow the Israelites to cross. Then the Israelites camped outside of their city. Each day for six days the Israelites marched around the city one time in complete silence. On the seventh day, they marched around seven times, still in complete silence until the end of the seventh circuit. At that point, some of them blew rams’ horns and the rest shouted loudly. That, in and of itself must have been very intimidating. The fact that it was followed by the collapse of the city walls and the armed Israelites charging into the city would have completely broken their morale.
A wise child listens and learns from the instructions their parents give them. One can generalize this even further, a wise person listens to the advice of those with more experience than themselves in the area under discussion. The writer mentions a particular class of fool, the mocker, who mocks anyone who believes differently than themselves, even when that person is more knowledgeable on a particular subject than themselves. One should always be skeptical of the arguments made by someone who mocks people who disagree with them. ,br>
Let us praise God with every means at our disposal. Let us make music praising Him with every instrument we can lay our hands on. If we will listen to God’s instructions, He will lift the burdens from our shoulders and provide for all of our needs. All too often, we refuse to listen to what He tells us. We stubbornly insist on following our own desires rather than the course which He lays out for us. I am guilty of this, even though I know that God’s plan for me is better for me that what I would choose for myself. Oh Lord, send Your Spirit upon me so that I will do your will!
Jesus tells several stories about how God feels when sinners repent and turn to Him. The first two stories are just about the joy which is experienced when we find that which we thought was lost. The third, the story of the Prodigal Son is much more complicated. Do I share the Father’s joy when those who were lost turn to Him?
In the story of the Prodigal Son, we have the son who returned to his father, recognizing that he did not deserve to be counted as his father’s son. We have the father who welcomes his son home, despite the wrong that the son did him. Not only does he welcome him home, he throws a party to celebrate his return. Finally, there is the elder brother, who resents his father’s joy at the return of his brother. I hope we can empathize with all three characters in this story. There are three questions we need to ask ourselves. First, do I recognize my tendency to fall into the pattern of the elder son? Second, do I recognize myself in the prodigal son? Third, and most important, am I willing to share in the Father’s joy at the return of the son who was as good as dead? When non-believers find God and are welcomed into the family, do I want to throw a party?
For six days the army of Israel marched around the city of Jericho. The army spoke not a word as they marched, while seven priests blew ram’s horns. On the seventh day they marched around the city seven times. At the end of the seventh circuit the priests let out a long blast on the horns and the entire army shouted as loud as they could. When they did this the walls of Jericho collapsed and the army was able to rush in and slay the town, sparing only Rahab and her family. Every time I read this account, I think that there is a lesson on trusting God in this story. They followed the instructions which God had given them and thus obtained the victory.
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.
When word spread among the peoples living in the land of Canaan that the Israelites had crossed the Jordan on dry ground the people living there became paralyzed with fear. The passage tells us that Joshua had to have all of the men circumcised because the Israelites had not circumcised those who were born while they were in the wilderness. They camped on the plains of Jericho until they were all healed. Then they celebrated Passover and the feast of unleavened bread.
God instructed Joshua that the Israelites were to march around Jericho once a day for six days with the priests blowing the horns. On the seventh day they were to march around the city seven times with the priests blowing the horns and at the end of the seventh circuit all of the people were to shout loudly. Joshua followed this command, instructing the people to not speak a word until he commanded them to shout. Joshua further instructed the people to destroy everything in the city not made from metal. The objects made from metal were to be kept for the treasury for the Lord’s House. They were to kill everyone in the city except for Rahab’s family. On the seventh day when the Israelites completed the seventh circuit of the city and gave a loud shout, the walls of Jericho collapsed. The Israelites rushed in and completely destroyed the city.
However, one man kept for himself some of the items which were supposed to be dedicated to God. As a result when Joshua sent a force against the city of Ai, the men of Ai routed the Israelites. Joshua and the other leaders of the Israelites prostrated themselves before God. God told Joshua that someone had stolen items that were to be dedicated to God and instructed Joshua to have the people of Israel spend a day of preparation. Then he was to have the people of Israel present themselves by tribe. God would point out which tribe the miscreant belonged to. That tribe would present itself by clans, then the guilty clan by family and then each member of the guilty family. Once the guilty party had been identified, he and all of his possessions needed to be destroyed.
Tax collectors and other sinners came to listen to Jesus teach. The Pharisees began to criticize Him for associating with them. This led Jesus to tell several parables. The first one was about a shepherd who lost one of his sheep. The shepherd will leave the 99 other sheep and go searching for his lost sheep. When he finds it he will react with joy and call his friends and neighbors to celebrate with him. His second parable is about a woman who loses one of ten coins and puts a tremendous amount of effort into finding it. Again she will call her friends and neighbors to celebrate with her when she does find it. Reading these parables I ask myself two questions. The first is, am I working as hard as the people in these two parables to find those who are lost and attempting to bring them home? The second question is just as important, do I celebrate when one of the lost finds their way home? Not just, “Yay, good for you!” but call all my friends and have a parade down main street. OK, maybe not a parade down main street, but we as Christians should be as excited about someone coming to know the Lord as we are when our home town team wins a championship. Does our congregation react to a new Christian the way a city reacts to its baseball team winning the World Series?
Or, are we more like the older brother in Jesus’ third parable? The third parable in today’s passage is thoroughly familiar to most of us. It is the parable of the prodigal son. The story is basic. The younger of two sons asks his father to give him his inheritance while his father was still alive. By doing this the son was saying that he wished his father was dead. He wanted his independence and his freedom, but he also wanted a share of the wealth that his father had accumulated. The father granted his son’s request and the son went off to live his life as he saw fit. This soon led to the end one should expect of such decisions. The young man had wasted all of his resources and had failed to develop any skills to acquire more. He ended up working for people who treated him terribly. He realized that his father treated even the hired hands better than his current employers treated him and decided to go home and beg his father to give him a job. He vowed to throw himself on his father’s mercy and beg his forgiveness. But on his way home his father was watching for him and saw him long before he got there. His father rushed out to greet him and before the young man realized what was happening his father was hugging him and welcoming him home. The son told his father that he recognized what a bad son he was and that he did not deserve to be treated as a son any longer. The father ignored the son’s protestations and called for his servants to clean the young man up and dress him in fine clothes. Then the father called for a feast.
This raises several points. Do we recognize how badly we have treated God? Do we recognize how completely undeserving of God’s love we are? The son went looking for his father, but long before he got there his father came and found him. That is how God treats us. When we were lost and began searching, long before we understood what we were looking for, God came out and found us.
But the story goes on. When the older brother found out that his brother had returned, he did not celebrate with his father. Rather, he was resentful of his father expending resources on his brother. Before we get too judgmental of the older brother let us look at things from his point of view. His younger brother had caused his father immense pain. The older brother had seen his father looking out over the fields to see if his younger brother was coming home. He had seen his father grieve for the loss of his son. He had worked even harder to make up to his father for his brother’s mistreatment of him. Then when his brother comes back after all of this time, his father not only welcomes him back as if nothing had happened, but throws a lavish party for him, something the older brother had never experienced. All too often we sit in judgment of the older brother without thinking that Jesus never tells us how he responded when his father explained why it was appropriate to throw a party for the younger brother. I think that was deliberate. Jesus was telling us that it was natural to feel the resentment that the older brother felt. The question is, how do we respond when our Father explains to us why He is throwing a party? Do we continue to sulk? Or do we recognize our Father’s joy and join Him in celebrating our brother’s return? I pray that I always celebrate with God when one of His prodigal sons (or daughters) return to Him.
The psalmist calls on us to praise God for all the good He has done for us. He tells us that God has offered to lift the burdens from our shoulders and ease the difficulties of the tasks we need to accomplish. When we cry out to Him He will save us (and He has done so in the past). If we refuse to bow to other gods, listen to God and follow His ways, He will subdue our enemies and provide us with the finest food. I will praise God and strive to follow His paths in all parts of my life.
Those who are wise accept discipline and listen to instruction, but fools mock those who rebuke their bad behavior. Let me always listen to those who confront me about my flaws and strive to correct my behavior. Let me not attempt to justify my failures and mock those who choose to treat others well.
