True riches are blessings from God. Unlike worldly riches we need make no choices we will later regret to obtain God’s blessings. I will seek God’s blessings rather than wealth and property.
This psalm was written as praise for King David (or perhaps one of his descendants). However, as I read it today it seems to be praise for Christ. It is Christ’s throne which will endure forever. Wherever justice is found, there Christ rules and wherever Christ rules justice is found.
When James and John asked for Jesus to promise them that they would get to sit in the places of highest honour they demonstrated that they had not yet understood Jesus’ teachings about greatness in heaven. The reaction of the other disciples to their request indicated that they also had failed to understand Jesus’ teachings on this matter. Having been raised in the Church and taught them from childhood, and, more importantly, growing up seeing them demonstrated by my parents (imperfectly, but demonstrated nevertheless), I do understand Jesus’ teaching on this matter. Even so, I still struggle to put it into practice. One of the key things I learned at a young age is that we should strive to elevate others.
Jesus focuses here on serving others, but it is not enough to do things for other people. Sometimes, we need to allow others to do for us. Jesus calls on us to do what others need in order for them to be great in the Kingdom of Heaven. If we seek to be great in the Kingdom of Heaven, we will fail. We must seek to make others great.
I love the scene with blind Bartimaeus for its simplicity. There is a reason it follows right after Jesus teaching His disciples that in order to be great in Heaven we need to serve others. This was not the first time He had taught this lesson to His disciples. Then we have the scene where Bartimaeus cries out to Jesus, “I want to see!” Throughout the Bible “see” is often used as a metaphor for “understand”. Here, Bartimaeus came before Jesus and all he wanted was to see. When he received his sight, he followed Jesus. He understood. Do we want to see more than anything else? Or do we want to go on pretending the world works according to our desires?
This passage tells us that if we, as a people, obey God we will live in safety. We will not need to worry about our security because God will take care of it for us. Our enemies will flee from us, even if they vastly outnumber us. On the other hand, if we, as a people, fail to follow God’s will, disaster after disaster will come upon us. Each one greater than the one before. Until, eventually, God brings our enemies to invade our land and make us prisoners in a foreign land.
It is not a question of what laws the government has in place. It does not matter if the law of the land enforces God’s will. What matters is whether we, each and every one of us, chooses to serve God, or ourselves. If we serve God, we will be secure. If we serve ourselves, we will loose our very being.
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 psalm always gives me trouble because it strikes me as little more than a courtier’s flattery of the king. Yet I firmly believe that everything that is in the Bible is there because God has a message in it for us. So, there must be something here the Spirit wants me see. As I look at this with that eye, I see one important point. One note necessarily directed at me, but a lesson for us today just as much as this psalm was meant to flatter the king in the day it was written. If someone with authority over others wants success and to endure in their position then let them love justice and hate evil. Those who wish to be leaders blessed by God need to defend truth humility and justice.
Jesus once more predicts His death and resurrection. Shortly after doing so, James and John asked to be seated in places of honour when He sat on His throne. Jesus asks them if they are able to follow the suffering path He will take to reach His throne and they respond in the affirmative. He then tells them that He does not have the authority to grant them their wish as those places have already been designated to someone by the Father. Jesus then reminds them (and us) once again that the path to greatness in His Kingdom is to be the servant of others. We are to follow the model which Jesus gave us. He came to serve others, not to be served. He came to suffer so that we would not have to. If we wish to be great in the Kingdom of God we need to serve others and be willing to suffer in order to relieve others from suffering. This is a truth that works in the workplace as well as in the Church, the path to greatness is by being of service to others.
This is capped by a story that I try to take to heart. When Blind Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was nearby, he began making a fuss so that he could gain Jesus’ attention. The people around him told him to be quiet and settle down, but this just made him shout louder and kick up a bigger stink. When Jesus heard him, He told the crowd to let him through. Immediately, Bartimaeus threw aside his cloak, jumped to his feet, and ran to Jesus. When Jesus asked him what he wanted, Bartimaeus replied, “I want to see.” Jesus told him to go, that his faith had healed him. Instantly Bartimaeus could see and followed Jesus down the road. I never noticed the importance of this story right here in Mark’s account. Jesus had just once more told His disciples that He would soon die and they did not understand. No sooner had He told them this than they began asking for places of honour in the Kingdom. Once more He had to tell them that those only those who served others would receive honour. Then we have the story of Bartimaeus. All he wanted was to be able to see. Do we desire to have out eyes opened the way Bartimaeus wanted his sight? Do we recognize that without Jesus, we are blind? Oh Lord, I want to see. Let me see Your will. Let me see how you want me to act and then cause me to act that way.
This passage begins by discussing the importance of not allowing our “brothers” to be mistreated. The reason for this is that is that they are God’s servants and belong to Him. Those who mistreat God’s servants is disrespecting God. Today let us use our resources to protect God’s servants throughout the world to the best of our ability. The passage goes on to tell the people of Israel that if they faithfully follow God’s commands they will live a peaceful life and never be in want. It also warns them if they fail to follow God’s commands they will face disease, privation, and invasion. There is a universal truth in this. Those societies which honour God and attempt to behave in a righteous manner will be prosperous and face few threats. Those societies which denigrate righteousness and hold honesty in low esteem will be filled with strife and poverty.
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.
The passage establishes that if one of the people of Israel were to sell themselves to a foreigner living in the land of Israel, they would have the right to have their freedom bought by one of their relatives at any time. In addition, they and their children would go be released in the next Year of Jubilee. The Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee could give us ideas about social relationships that would go a long way towards improving social justice. I do not suggest that they should be made the law of the land, but Christians should examine these concepts and consider how they could implement parts of them on a personal level (the Sabbath Year concept is the basis for the sabbatical year that many missionary organizations give to missionaries. Some other groups give sabbatical years as well).
The next section begins by reiterating the command to worship God alone and offer worship to no other being or thing in His place and the command to keep the Sabbath. It is interesting that so often the command to not worship idols is paired with the command to keep the Sabbath as a day of rest (and worship). The section goes on to discuss the ways in which God will reward the people for keeping His commands, followed by a section on how He will punish them if they fail to do so. I am uneasy applying the promises which God gave to the people of Israel to any other group in history, however, I think there are some things to be seen about living in this world revealed here. I believe that if one studies history they will observe that societies which align with the moral code laid out in the commands God gave the people of Israel generally prosper. In addition, when those societies begin to abandon those moral codes, their prosperity begins to diminish. I believe that if you read what God tells the people will happen if they disobey His commands you see a gradual escalation in the bad things that happen to a people who refuse to keep the moral code that God built into the Universe. There are certain principles that when followed lead to prosperity and success and when they are violated lead to poverty and misery. This applies both on a personal level and on the societal level.
As they were heading to Jerusalem Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them that the chief priests and religious leaders would arrest Him and turn Him over to the Romans to be executed. He continued by telling them that three days after His death He would rise. Mark tells us that after this, James and John came to Jesus and requested that He seat them on His right and left when He came into His glory (Matthew says that their mother made this request, but implies that they put her up to it). Jesus responded by first asking if they could take the suffering He was about to experience, to which they replied that they could. Jesus then told them that they would indeed experience such suffering, but that those who would sit in those seats had already been chosen. The rest of the Twelve became angry when they realized what James and John had attempted.Jesus called them all together and gave them a crash course in how to achieve greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven. He repeated to them what He had told them after they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. He tells them that if they wish to be great they must be the servant of others. Jesus points out that those who are regarded as the rulers of this world exercise control over others and demand that those others serve them. We are not to be like that, we should strive to serve the needs of others. The fact that Jesus repeats this here suggest that this was something very important for us to hear.
The interesting thing about that is that this teaching requires us to both serve others to the best of our ability and to allow others to serve us. This second part does not mean that we tell others what to do for us. Rather it means that when others come to us and ask to do something for us, we allow them to do so. One of the most influential events of my childhood was when my family home was flooded in a major flood. We suffered significant loss, inconvenience and same small suffering, but others suffered significantly more. When it came time to clean up and recover from the damage, my parents did not want to accept help. They thought that those who wished to help them should expend their efforts helping others who had suffered worse. This was a noble sentiment. However, two of the other elders in the church (my father was one of the elders at that time) came to my parents and pointed out to them that it was also hubris. They pointed out that my parents had helped many of these people when those people had needs, these people now wanted to return that favor. By refusing their help my parents were implicitly claiming to be better people than those people. They were saying, “You needed our help, but we don’t need your help.” Not only did my parents accept this rebuke and accept the help of those who offered, but it became a story my father told to illustrate this very point (every time he did so it was also used to illustrate how he had succumbed to pride. My father was a master at telling stories about his experience that both illustrated the teachings of Christ and the fact that he was a sinner no better than his audience).
As Jesus and the crowd following Him were leaving the city of Jericho, a blind man named Bartimaeus began loudly calling out to Jesus asking for His mercy. Many in the crowd rebuked him, telling him that he was making it hard for them to hear what Jesus was saying, and besides he shouldn’t disturb the great man (I’m reading between the lines here). But the blind man did not listen, he was determined to get Jesus attention. Jesus told those around Him to call the blind man to Him. When the blind man heard that Jesus wanted to talk to him, he jumped up and left his belongings where they lay and rushed to Jesus. When he got there, Jesus asked him what he wanted. The blind man replied that he wanted to see. Jesus told him that his faith had healed him and he immediately was able to see. Bartimaeus was not willing to let public disapproval discourage him from seeking Jesus and he had no doubts that Jesus could fix his problems. When Jesus called him to come, he jumped up and left everything behind to come to Him. Then, he did not go back to get his things but followed Jesus on His way. Do we express a similar confidence in Jesus and joy in following Him?
This psalm can be seen partially as a prophecy about the coming Messiah, but it more readily fits as praise of an existing godly ruler or advice to those who govern. Those rulers who truly love righteousness and hate wickedness will be blessed by God. Their enemies will be routed and their lands will be prosperous.
