The proverb writer tells us that those with good sense are respected, then he tells us part of what he means by good sense: thinking before you act (I believe that he would include speaking within the meaning of “act” for this proverb). On the other hand he tells us that the treacherous, or unfaithful, are headed for destruction. The treacherous, the unfaithful, are those who not only act without thinking first, but brag about doing so.
The King James translation of the first verse of this psalm inspired the hymn, “I Will Sing of the Mercies of the Lord”. The sentiments of this psalm and that song should be ours. I will sing of God’s great faithfulness, of the fact that His love endures forever.
When Jesus was asked by what authority He took the actions He did, He responded by asking if John authority to baptize came from heaven or from man. Essentially, Jesus was asking them what sort of answer they would accept. This is a good example for us to follow when we are challenged on our faith and what we believe. Before we attempt to answer the question, let us make sure that there is an answer our questioners will accept. If every answer is the wrong answer, don’t bother to try.
There is a common point between the parable of the evil farmers and the story about Jesus being questioned on taxation. In both cases, Jesus brings up the point of giving God what is God’s due. It is in Jesus’ answer on taxation that we get the clearest answer as to what is God’s due. Jesus asks whose image is on the coin used to pay the Roman tax. The answer is that Caesar’s image is on those coins. At which point Jesus says, “Give to Caesar what belongs Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” It is subtle, but this is a clear reference to Genesis 1:26. Since we are made in God’s image, it is ourselves which we are to give to God.
I could go on for some time about this message. The government has claim to our money, since it is government laws which make that money in the first place. However, only God has claim to us, because it was God who created us and in the process put His image upon us. It is the nature of governments that they continually attempt to extend their authority over our very beings. If we fail to give our very selves to the service of God, we will gradually end up giving that service to the government, or some other authority which does not have legitimate claim to that service. This lesson is just another take on the lesson Jesus taught when He told us we must choose who we are going to serve, God Or Mammon?
The story of the eastern tribes building an altar and the response of the rest of Israel gives us a lesson for dealing with those who we believe are behaving sinfully. Here is what happened. The people of Israel learned that the eastern tribes had done something. The only explanation they could think of for that action was something which violated God’s commands to the people of Israel. However, rather than assume that their explanation for the action of the eastern tribes was correct and passing judgment on them, they asked them why they had done what they had done. That is instead of acting on their assumptions they decided to check their facts. It is this model to which Jesus refers in Matthew 18 when He tells us how to deal with our fellow believers who sin.
The best and easiest way to gain people’s respect is to demonstrate good judgment. If you try to gain one person’s respect by betraying the trust of another you will end up facing your own destruction. There are people who are proud of the fact that they never plan anything and always act on impulse. This proverb reminds us that acting on impulse is foolish and while it sometimes works out for the best, it is better to think things through before taking action.
I prefer the NIV for this psalm. This is probably because it is reminds me of the hymn, “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord” (which is based upon this psalm). I will make God’s faithfulness known to all generations. The first two verses are so appropriate today of all days:
I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever;
with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
through all generations.
I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.
It is because of God’s great love that Jesus was on the cross and because of that love that He rose from the dead. I will declare these facts for all to hear.
When the teachers of religious law challenged Jesus to tell them where He had gotten the authority for His actions, He turned the tables on them. By asking them whether John’s authority came from heaven, or was merely from man, He pointed out to the crowd that the religious teachers were really asking Him for a human authority to justify His actions. The crowd watching this exchange would have recognized that Jesus was telling them that if they could not tell whether John’s authority came from heaven or from men, they would be unable, or unwilling, to accept that His authority came from heaven.
The religious leaders were stung by Jesus’ remarks (and the parable He told after that confrontation). So they attempted to trap Him by asking if it was OK for Jews to pay taxes to Caesar. On the one hand, if Jesus said that it was not OK, they could have the Romans arrest Him and execute Him on grounds of stirring up rebellion. On the other side there were several angles they could use to diminish His standing with the crowds. First, paying taxes is never popular and a significant number of those who followed Jesus were just waiting for Him to start the rebellion against Rome. Second, and importantly, paying tax to Caesar could be interpreted as a form of idolatry since Caesar had declared himself a god.
Jesus’ answer was wonderful in many ways. First, from the perspective of non-Jews, Jesus’ answer was that Jews should pay Caesar’s tax. This meant that the religious leaders could not use it to have the Romans arrest Him. Second, it contained a condemnation of those who raised the question (and showed that they were indeed trying to trap Him). They were carrying a coin which had Caesar’s image on it and which declared him a god. If they had been the type of people they wanted the crowd to think they were, they would not have been carrying such a coin. Finally, Jesus’ answer told them that while the coin bore Caesar’s image, and thus belonged to him, we bear God’s image, and thus belong to Him.
Let us give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but let us never forget that we belong to God. Let us give all that we are to God’s service.
Once Joshua had finished allotting land to all of the other tribes of Israel, the Levites approached him and the other leaders of Israel requesting that they be given towns and surrounding lands according to Moses’ instructions. Once all of the land had been allotted the Israelites finished taking control of the land and the tribes with land east of the Jordan returned home. Before they crossed over the Jordan to the East, those tribes built a large altar as a memorial to their connection to the Israelites living west of the Jordan. The rest of the tribes of Israel believed that they had built the altar as a separate place of worship from the one where the Tabernacle was located and gathered their forces to cleanse the land of this idolatry. However, before taking action they sent a delegation to discover the reasons for the eastern tribes decision to build this altar. This is an important lesson for us. Before we judge the actions of another group we should speak with them and learn what their motives were and their intentions are.
Well, I am past my one year mark on this blog. I am excited about discovering what God has in store for me as I begin blogging about the passages a second time through. I hope that my writing has improved as I have gone along. I pray that God’s Spirit continues to move in me as I write this. The last few days the Spirit has really moved in my heart as I wrote my blog entries. I pray that He continues to do so and that I can take what the Spirit has been saying to me and put it into practice. Please pray for me on that score.
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.
After land had been allocated to all of the other tribes, the tribe of Levi came to Eleazar and Joshua to remind them that God had said through Moses that they would receive towns and surrounding pasture-lands among the other tribes rather than a separate allotment of land. At this point towns and their surrounding pasture-lands were chosen from the lands of the other tribes to be given to the Levites. The Levites were spread among the other tribes in proportion to the size of the various tribes.
At this point Joshua called together the fighting men from the tribes granted lands east of the Jordan (Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh) and told them that their promise had been fulfilled and sent them home. As they returned home, the men of the tribes with lands east of the Jordan River built an altar on the west bank of the Jordan River. The rest of the tribes gathered for war because of this. They sent a delegation to the tribes east of the Jordan demanding to know why they had built an altar. They told the tribes east of the Jordan that God had commanded them to offer sacrifices at only the one altar and that the whole of the nation of Israel would suffer if those from east of the Jordan violated this command.
When Jesus was teaching in the Temple the chief priests and teachers of religious law came to Him and demanded to know by what authority He did the things which He did (the context suggests that in particular they were asking by what authority He drove the merchants out of the Temple courts)? Jesus replies by first asking them where John the Baptist’s authority to baptize came from, from heaven or from men?
The religious leaders discussed their answer among themselves. They knew that if they answered, “From heaven,” Jesus would ask them why they did not believe him? On the other hand, if they said John’s authority was merely of men, the crowd would likely assault them, since the crowd believed that John was a prophet. Even if the crowd did not react violently, the religious leaders would have lost the respect of the crowd if they declared that John’s authority merely came from men. So, they told Jesus that they did not know.
Jesus then told them that He would not answer their question either. I am pretty sure that the crowd would have interpreted Jesus’ answer as saying that His authority came from the same place as John’s. Jesus was pointing out that we have to make a decision. Either John’s (and His) teachings were merely from men and could be safely ignored, or they were from God and needed to be followed. This is too important a subject to be undecided on. This is still true today.
Jesus then tells the parable of sharecroppers who refuse to give what was due to the representatives of the landowner, even going so far as to kill his son. Jesus tells the crowd that the landowner will return, kill those sharecroppers and find others to tend the vineyards. He then quotes Psalm 118:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’
That anyone who stumbles over this stone will be broken to pieces and those it falls on will be crushed. I think His meaning was that if we try to build our lives without incorporating Him and His teaching we will constantly stumble over Him and be broken. And if we try to build our lives with Him at some place other than as the foundation, what we have built will come apart and He will “fall” on us, crushing us. Have I rejected the cornerstone? Or have I made it my foundation?
The leaders then sent spies pretending to not be connected to them to ask Jesus a question. They approached Him and, after proclaiming what a wonderful, honest teacher He was, they asked Him if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? They were trying to trap Jesus. If He said that it was wrong to pay taxes to Caesar, they could have Him arrested and executed for sedition. On the other hand, if He said that it was right to pay taxes to Caesar, the people would lose respect for Him. Jesus knew exactly where they were going and asked them to show Him one of the coins used to pay the tax. He then asked them whose image and inscription were stamped on it. To which the questioners replied, “Caesar’s.” Jesus then told them to give to Caesar what was Caesar’s and to God what was God’s. Jesus’ answer was more than just clever. When He asked them whose image and inscription were on the coin, the words He used would have reminded His listeners of the command that they were to make no images of God and that they were to have no other gods. Jesus answer would have served two purposes. The first would have been that even carrying such a coin should be construed as idolatry by the same standard that said that it was wrong to pay taxes to Caesar.
The other purpose was more subtle and has relevance to us today. Jesus was also reminding the people that Caesar was making claims to authority that belonged to God. Caesar claimed to be the source of safety and security. He claimed that everyone owed their life to him. Caesar proclaimed that one’s primary loyalty was to him. All governments throughout history make similar claims, to some degree this is a product of the nature of government. Governments which declare that all of their citizens be part of a particular religion are attempting to get around this by saying that one’s loyalty to God (or gods) is through the government sanctioned “Church”. The Founding Fathers of the U.S. attempted to address this by placing the freedom of religion in the First Amendment to the Constitution. I do not think they were successful, but it was an attempt to address the issue of government putting itself in the place of God. It is important to realize that Jesus’ answer is not about taxes. It is about where our loyalty lies. A simplistic look at Jesus’ answer, which gets most of the point, is that the coin that is used to pay taxes to Caesar has Caesar’s image on it, so it “belongs” to him. But that YOU have God’s image on you, so you belong to God.
Orchid flower close up
The psalmist declares that he will sing of God’s unfailing love and faithfulness. That he will do all in his power to see that everyone knows of God’s wonderful power. I will strive to do the same. I will declare God’s mighty power and is everlasting love. There is no being nor institution which can compare to the power of God. I will praise Him as long as I draw breath.
If we demonstrate good sense, people will respect us. On the other hand those who cannot be relied on are heading for destruction. Those who are wise think and plan before they act. The foolish not only act without examining the consequences, they are often proud of this fact.
