For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Everyone does well and is happy when the godly are successful and things are run according to their ideals. On the other hand, everyone flees and/or hides when the wicked are running the government. This provides us a good way to measure our government. The closer its laws (and the enforcement thereof) resembles God’s ideal, the more prosperous its people will be. The farther from God’s ideal the government is, the more wicked it is, the more dangerous things are for the common people.

    The proud will hold us in contempt for following God’s instructions, I will not allow that to cause me to stop. Evil people will try to cause us to sin, but they will fail if we are anchored in God’s word. So, set your anchor by reading His word daily.

    This world is not our home, let us live as transients who are merely passing through. However, let us live among our unbelieving neighbors in such a manner that they give honor to God. Let us submit to those who have authority over us, so long as it does not cause us to violate God’s law. God has given us freedom, but that is no excuse to do evil. God has called us to do good, even when it leads to suffering. We should submit to those with authority over us, even when they mistreat and abuse us. However, if we are in a position of authority over others we should treat them as our equals, because they are.

    Ezekiel’s description of his vision of the Temple has the type of detail which makes it seem like something that will literally happen. Until He gets to this passage where he describes the river of life which he saw flowing out of the Temple. From here to the end of the book, his descriptions seem to include numbers which carry significance, although I do not understand the significance of those numbers. However, there is an aspect of Ezekiel’s description of the river which does convey meaning to me. There flows out of Jerusalem a river which brings life and healing to all whom it touches. That river springs from Jesus Christ. It provides healing and sustenance to those who accept that He is the new High Priest who has sacrificed Himself for our salvation.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Everyone cheers when good people succeed, but when the wicked become powerful people go into hiding and attempt to avoid being noticed. If most people seek to avoid drawing attention to themselves, it tells you that those with power are wicked. When people cheer for the successes of those in power, you know that those people are leading in a godly way. Usually our leaders are somewhere in between and we see the behavior of the people being somewhere in between as well.
    Those who hide their sins will find them being revealed at inopportune times, or otherwise interfering with their success. Those who admit to their sins and turn from them will receive forgiveness and be able to move beyond them.

    The arrogant will mock us for relying on God’s promises, but they are our only true hope. It is easy to become angry at those who reject God’s directions on how to lead a good life. They fail to see the connection between that rejection and the problems they seek to solve. The solution to most of the problems we see in this world is following God’s direction. It is by obeying God’s commands and instructions that we will find our way to dealing with the problems which life presents us.

    Peter reinforces his teaching that we are to live as foreigners among unbelievers. He instructs us to live such good lives that, even if they accuse us of wrongdoing, the unbelievers around us will honour God for our behavior. We need to examine our lives to be careful not to do anything which will bring dishonour to God’s name. This includes recognizing that the government, and its officials, have authority over us. Let us strive to be respectful of everyone, especially those with government authority, and live good lives, so that those who accuse us of wrongdoing look foolish.
    Peter makes clear how we are to judge our response to government commands. He tells us that we are to love everyone and respect the Church, the family of believers. We are to fear God and respect the government. This means that we should NOT fear the government. When the government instructs us to do that which violates God’s commands, we should respectfully decline. Another point worth making, Peter tells us to submit to government authority. Elsewhere we are told that all government authority comes from God. Therefore, the government does not have the authority to tell us to do anything which is counter to God’s commands.
    Peter goes on to tell slaves to submit to their masters, even if their masters are bad masters. This instruction contains the same limitation as the previous instruction to submit to government authority. He then tells wives to submit to their husbands. Further, they should seek to have beauty that comes from being a good, loving person, not that which comes from adornment (or cosmetic surgery). Wives are told to submit to their husbands, even if they are not godly men. That is both easier and harder than following his instructions for husbands.
    Peter tells husbands that they are to honour their wives and respect them. My wife may be weaker than I, but she is just as much God’s child as I am. And when I say weaker, I mean that literally. She cannot pick up as heavy an object as I can (or perform other feats of strength as easily as I can). The reason that the instruction given wives is easier is because it is easier to interpret what it means for a wife to submit to her husband than to interpret what it means for a husband to honour his wife. On the other hand, honouring your wife will probably not involve submitting to emotional or physical suffering at their hands. I will say that if your wife suffers emotional or physical suffering at your hands, you have FAILED to honour her.
    There is one last point I would like to make here. It is instructive that Peter has no instructions for how masters should treat their slaves. This leads me to the conclusion that Peter could see no way to be faithful to God and hold a fellow human being as a possession.

    Ezekiel describes a river which flowed out from the presence of God. This river got deeper as it flowed away from the Temple. It starts out as shallow stream, but becomes a deep flowing river. This river is a river of life. It brings life everywhere it flows. It even converts the Dead Sea from a place where no fish live to a place that abounds with life. Life will abound wherever the water of this river flows. I believe that Ezekiel was talking about how life will flourish in the restored Israel as a result of their faithfulness. However, it also tells us how the love of God works in the world around us when we faithfully follow Christ and express God’s love of those around us.

     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 in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

     As Ezekiel finishes describing his vision of the new Temple, he describes a river which will flow out from the Temple and into the Dead Sea. He describes going along the river and crossing it every 1,000 cubits. At each crossing the river was significantly deeper until it became too deep to walk across and could only be crossed by swimming. The description is of a river of life which will bring new life to the Dead Sea, so that it will teem with fish. As I read the passage it seemed to be a figurative prophecy about the river of life in the New Jerusalem after Christ returns. Yet, the emphasis on the fact that the marshes and swamps will remain salty makes me wonder if it is a prophecy that will yet take place in this world.

     Peter instructs us to live lives that are above reproach, so that even when unbelievers accuse us of doing wrong they will know that we behave honorably. Continuing in that line of thinking, Peter tells us to submit** to human authority because it is instituted to punish those who do wrong and honor those who do right. He goes on to tell slaves to submit to their earthly masters, wives to submit to their husbands, and husbands to be considerate of their wives and to treat them with respect because we are all equal before God. The theme running through all of this is that we as believers need to act honourably in all we do. God has given us freedom, yet we answer to God and may not use our freedom as a cover to do evil.

** I prefer the word “submit” here as used by the NIV and the NRSV (and most other translations) to the word “respect” used by the New Living Translation because it is possible to submit to authorities, even when they behave badly, but it is impossible to respect those who have not only failed to earn it but have acted in disreputable fashion.

     I rely on God’s promise to me. It is my source of hope. God’s promises are the only sure source of hope we can find. It is through meditating on His commands and following His instructions that we will find comfort in all that troubles us. O Lord, teach me Your decrees.

     When the righteous are victorious, everyone considers it a cause for rejoicing. When the wicked rule, people hide because no one knows who will next suffer from their depredations. Those who conceal their sins will find them coming back to haunt them whenever they think they are about to succeed. Those who confess their sins and turn from them will find mercy and forgiveness.