If you are honest and upright your path will be clear. Those who attempt to get ahead by lies and deceit will find themselves under ever heavier burdens.
I will put my trust in God. He is my helper who rescues me when trouble abounds. I will make offerings to Him, not in an attempt to bribe Him, but as a statement of thanksgiving. I have nothing to give God that was not already His. I will offer it back to Him because I am grateful for all that He has done for me.
When Pilate asked Jesus if He was the King of the Jews, he expected Jesus to make some grand pronouncement, perhaps about how the people would rise up to avenge His death. Instead Jesus responded with what was essentially a shrug. When the crowd arrived to ask/demand that Pilate release a prisoner as had become his tradition, he was reminded of the throngs which had followed Jesus into the city the previous week. He expected this crowd to ask for Jesus’ release. He was caught by surprise at their refusal and demand that Jesus be crucified. He didn’t really care, so he took the course of least resistance.
If it was not for the way the Gospel of Matthew emphasizes the connection to Psalm 22 I do not know if I would have noticed them here. Nevertheless there are clear references to Psalm 22. There is the obvious one when Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”. But there is also the reference to the soldiers dividing His clothes and dicing for them. There is also the reference to the crowd mocking Him and saying that He should save Himself in terms very reminiscent of the psalm.
Marks account of the Roman officer reacting to Jesus death is even more striking than in Matthew or Luke. This soldier would have seen Jesus before Pilate and when the soldiers had mocked Him before bringing Him out to be crucified. The officer made his statement based on how Jesus behaved all through this day. Do we conduct ourselves in such a manner when we face trouble that people see God in us?
There is a bit of simple politics in all of the times when Moses’ authority was challenged, but Korah’s is the most blatantly so. Korah used his position as a leader among the Levites to attempt to acquire more. Korah questioned Moses’ right to stand in authority over other Israelites, yet strove to use his standing as a Levite to stand above them.
Korah made some legitimate points when he asked why Moses had authority over others. However, he made it clear that he was not really looking for an answer to that question. Rather Korah was questioning Moses’ authority in order to take it for himself. It is not inappropriate to question authority and to hold those with authority accountable. However, when we attempt to use holding authority accountable as an excuse to not be held accountable ourselves, we risk being judged by God.
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 proverb reminds me of a saying I have heard and which I like. “It is easy to keep your story straight if you tell the truth.” Those who are righteous and honest will walk straight paths and avoid troubles because of their righteousness and honesty. Those who are wicked will find themselves tripped up by their own wickedness and lies.
God is my helper. He is the one who sustains me. I will praise His name. This psalm reminds us that we will be attacked by violent people who care nothing for God, but that if we turn to God for protection He will rescue us from their assaults.
When the Jewish religious leaders brought Jesus before Pilate they accused Him of many crimes. Jesus made no attempt to mount a defense to these charges, much to Pilate’s surprise. When Pilate asked Jesus if He was the King of the Jews, rather than answer Pilate, Jesus said, “You have said it.” This was neither a denial nor an affirmation. Jesus did this because different people would mean different things when they said that someone was the King of the Jews. Jesus did not deny that He was the King of the Jews, because by some meanings of that term, He was indeed the King of the Jews. On the other hand, He did not affirm that either because by other meanings of the term (especially the meaning which Pilate would have most likely understood) He was not the King of the Jews. As Pilate listened to the various accusations the Jewish religious leaders made against Jesus, he realized that there was no real substance to their accusations. This is an important lesson for us when people who hate us because of our faith accuse us of wrongdoing. There are times when we should just remain silent because it will quickly become obvious to those listening to the accusations that our accusers are making things up and/or projecting their own wrongdoing on to us. I need to learn that there are times when it is counterproductive to attempt to answer accusations. In those times, if I allow my accusers to continue to speak, they will refute themselves.
As Jesus hung on the cross, the people who passed by mocked Him. The religious leaders made reference to His miracles, acknowledging that they had failed to believe in Him as a result of those miracles, but claiming that they would believe Him if only He would perform one more and come down off the cross. How often are we like that? Just one more sign/miracle and we will believe that God is calling us to a course of action? Yet as they stood there not believing, Jesus’ message was reaching into the heart of someone. The Roman centurion who oversaw the crucifixion, when he saw how Jesus died, declared, “This man truly was the Son of God.” We sometimes forget that God’s actions are not aimed at us, sometimes they are aimed to bring God’s grace to someone unexpected. The Roman centurion is the last person any of those present would have expected to be reached by the Gospel on that day. Yet he was the one who found faith from witnessing the crucifixion.
While the Israelites were in the wilderness, one of the Levites, a man named Korah, stirred up rebellion among the Israelites against Moses and Aaron. Two prominent members of the tribe of Reuben and 250 other leaders of the people of Israel joined them in their rebellion. Moses did not gather his forces and start a civil war among the Israelites, as Korah and his followers appeared to expect. Rather Moses called on God to settle the dispute. Moses called on Korah and those Levites following him to present themselves before God with incense burners and Aaron would do the same. Then Moses said that they would see who God would accept. Many of the people came behind Korah, offering him their support in what appears to have been an attempt to prevent Moses from using military force to put down this rebellion. Moses warned the people to move away from the tents of the leaders of the rebellion. Most of the people did so and the ground opened up and swallowed the tents and those who remained near them. There are many ways we could interpret this, but the key factor is that Moses did not use military force to put down the rebellion. Rather he allowed God to show the people that he was the leader whom God had chosen for them.
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 begins with instructions on what the people of Israel should do if they unintentionally violate the commands that God gave them through Moses, whether corporately or as individuals. It then tells a story about a man who was caught violating the Sabbath and the punishment God instructed Moses to impose on him.
A Levite named Korah conspired with three other Levites to overthrow Moses. They said that the all of the Israelites were holy and set aside to the Lord, so Moses should not be set above them as an authority. This suggests that they were attempting some sort of democratic reform, or more likely, attempting to take control under the guise of democratic reform. Moses summoned Korah’s co-conspirators to meet with him. Two of them refused denying that Moses had authority to summon them. Moses instructed Korah that his core group of followers, who Korah claimed should be allowed priestly duties, should come before the Lord with incense burners. Aaron would also come with an incense burner. The people gathered to witness the confrontation. The passage is slightly ambiguous but I read it to say that the majority of the people sympathized with Korah’s revolt. When God told Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the assembly so that He could destroy it. Moses interceded for the people and God relented, instructing the people to move away from the tents of those leading the revolt.
Moses then went to the tents of those leading the revolt and told the people to move away from them and their possessions. Moses told the people that if these rebels suffered a natural death, they would know that God had not sent Moses nor given him special authority. He then told the people that the God would cause the earth to swallow these men and all of their possessions. No sooner had Moses finished speaking than the earth opened and swallowed all of those associated with Korah’s rebellion and their possessions. At the same time, fire came out from the Lord’s presence and burned to death those of Korah’s followers who were burning incense before the Lord.
In the morning after their informal hearing against Jesus the religious leaders took Jesus to Pilate. Pilate asked Jesus if He was the king of the Jews, to which Jesus replied that Pilate was the one who said so. The religious leaders made numerous accusations to Pilate against Jesus, but Jesus refrained from replying to them. Jesus’ failure to mount a defense amazed Pilate and may have had something to do with Pilate’s desire to release Him. There was a custom of releasing a person chosen by the people at the Passover feast. Pilate attempted to convince the people to choose Jesus, but the religious leaders convinced them to call for the release of the notorious criminal who Pilate offered as the alternative. The religious leaders stirred the crowd up to call for Jesus’ crucifixion. When Pilate asked what His crime was they merely shouted louder for His crucifixion.
In response to the crowd, Pilate had Jesus flogged and turned over to be crucified. The soldiers mocked and tormented Jesus before leading Him out to be crucified. Jesus was so weakened by His treatment that the soldiers had to conscript someone to carry His cross to the site of crucifixion. When they had hung Him on the cross, the passersby and the religious leaders mocked Him and declared that if He came down off the cross, then they would believe Him. At noon, the land went dark and remained dark until after Jesus’ death at three in the afternoon.
Just before His death, Jesus cried out in Aramaic, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is the first line of Psalm 22 and according to rabbinic tradition, by quoting the first line of this psalm Jesus was referencing the entire psalm. Psalm 22 is a psalm where the psalmist expresses deep despair, but also expresses faith that God will deliver him from his suffering. The psalmist ins Psalm 22 declares that he is suffering greatly and feels abandoned by God but that he will nevertheless praise God because he knows that God will deliver him from his suffering. I think it is important that as we read the account of Jesus’ exclamation of profound abandonment just before His death, we realize that He was nevertheless expressing His continued faith in God’s power and love. Even at the moment when He most felt alone and abandoned, Jesus declared that God would deliver Him and He praised God for His greatness. We should do likewise (I know that this is much easier said than done).
What a great psalm to remember when facing troubles and trials, when people are threatening us and acting against us. Even when the whole world seems to be against me, I can rely on this:
But God is my helper.
The Lord keeps me alive!
I will praise Him and honor Him because this is true. In all of the troubles I have faced, God has provided me with deliverance. I know that He will continue to do so.
Close up of the pepper sprouts
Those who choose to live a life of righteousness find their life to be straightforward and direct. Those who choose to live a wicked life find themselves overwhelmed by the cumulative consequences of their wicked behavior. Those who are godly find that their good behavior provides them with deliverance when trouble arises, while those who are unfaithful find that by attempting to deceive others they trap themselves.
