This proverb seems self-evident, but sometimes we overlook the self-evident. It is not just that those who do these things are an embarrassment to their parents. These are people we should be ashamed to be seen with. People who mistreat their parents as described should be ashamed to show their face in public. Society should consider them to be disgraced with no further action needed.
When I read this psalm my eyes were drawn to the middle of this passage:
To the faithful you show yourself faithful;
to those with integrity you show integrity.
To the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
What exactly does that mean? Well the first parts are easy, God will respond to virtue with virtue, but God is not able to do evil. So He cannot respond to the deceitful, the crooked, and the dishonest in like manner. However, God responds appropriately. The deceitful, dishonest, and crooked discover that God is not naive. He is not fooled in the least by their subterfuge.
Paul points out that if we have the Spirit of God living within us we are not controlled by our sinful nature. Further, he tells us that if we do not have the Spirit of God living within us we are not God’s people. What does this mean for us? It means that we need to examine our lives and seek out the places where we are allowing our sinful nature to control us. Or more exactly, we need to ask the Spirit to search us and identify those areas. Once we have identified those areas, we need to allow the Spirit to enter into them and take control. If we do not do this, but instead allow our sinful nature to control those areas we will die bit by bit.
However, if we allow the Holy Spirit to take control and stop us from doing the deeds of our sinful nature we will live. Doing so makes us children of God. So, even though we allow the Spirit to control us, we are not slaves. If we allow it, our sinful nature will make us slaves, but, on the other hand, if we allow the Spirit to do so, He will make us free. This does not mean that we will not suffer. No, it actually means that we will suffer. However, the suffering we experience in this life is nothing compared to the glory we will experience when this life is over. As we allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives, He will give us a foretaste of that glory. I hope that you have experienced that foretaste because even that little bit makes me excited about what is to come. My excitement is not based on my imagining what that glory might be but on the thought of experiencing that glory continuously rather than intermittently, as I do now.
We learn here that Solomon had married Pharaoh’s daughter. He thought it inappropriate that she live in the palace which David had built because the Ark of the Covenant had been there. I know that this marriage was a political one, but nevertheless, perhaps Solomon should have considered if it was appropriate to marry a woman who he felt could not step on holy ground. Certainly, I will advise anyone reading this to take that into account before entering into a relationship with someone.
The passage also describes how Solomon built a trading empire. Solomon sent ships on three year trading missions. He commissioned caravans. The land of Canaan was ideally suited for such an empire. If Solomon and the people of Israel had faithfully served God, this trading empire could have continued for many years.
The first step to being wise is to seek to gain wisdom. If you do not value wisdom, you will be stuck being a fool. Whatever else you do with your life, develop good judgment. Seek wisdom, no matter what it costs you in material wealth. Spend your fortune, if that is what it takes, to acquire understanding. If you embrace wisdom, wisdom will bring you honour.
Our enemies may attack us when we are at our most vulnerable, but God will reach down from heaven to rescue us. He will lead us to safety…all we have to do is follow Him. If we keep to the ways of God and do not turn to evil, those ways will lead us to safety. God is faithful to those who are faithful. He shows His integrity to those who demonstrate integrity. The pure will see that God is pure. But the devious will discover that God is cunning.
Today’s passage contains one more parable about the Kingdom of Heaven. In this parable Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to fishing with a net. When fishing with a net, you catch everything in the water where you spread your nets. It is only after you have drawn the nets to the shore that you separate the good fish from the bad. In the same way, we are called to spread our nets and bring everyone into the Kingdom of Heaven. When the end comes God will sort out those who belong from those who do not. It is not up to us to determine who “deserves” to be in the Kingdom of Heaven and who does not. There is a saying which is sometimes used during war, “Kill them all. Let God sort them out.” There is a kernel of truth to that, but the Christian version of this is, “Invite them all. Let God sort them out.”
We see in today’s passage the fulfillment of the dreams which Joseph had as a boy when his brothers bowed down before him. I think Joseph found this result much less glorious than he imagined it would be when he had those dreams as a boy.
The psalmist continues on his theme that God will rescue us if we call on Him. God will reward us for doing right. If we keep God’s ways and do not turn from Him to do evil, He will be there for us when our enemies strike. If we are faithful, God will show us His faithfulness. If we have integrity, God will show us His integrity. If we are pure, God will show us His purity. However, if we are crooked and try to get our way by being devious, God will show that He is shrewd. God will come to our rescue only if we humbly acknowledge that we do not deserve His aid. Those who proudly think that they are better than others will be humiliated by God as He shows them that they are no more His than the vilest sinner.
If the Spirit of God lives in us, we are controlled by Him, not by our sinful nature. This is an important lesson for us here. We cannot excuse our sinful acts by saying that we could not help ourselves. We may succumb to temptation, but the Spirit of God gives us a choice. We are obligated to behave in certain ways, but that obligation is not to our sinful bodies. No, we are obligated to obey the Spirit and act as He directs us. We no longer need live as fearful slaves. God’s Spirit has entered into us to demonstrate that He has adopted us as His very own children, heirs to His glory.
However, if we are to share in God’s glory, we will also share in Jesus’ suffering. There is suffering for all who live this life, but as Jesus said, the world will love us no more than it loved Him. Yet, no matter how bad our suffering may be in this life, the day will come when we will experience the joy of being united with God. The greatest joys we experience in this life are but a foretaste of what is to come.
Rehoboam was given two different types of advice about how to be a good leader. The first was given to him by his older advisers, those who had advised his father. They told him to serve the people and act in their interest. The second was given by his contemporaries, those who had grown up with him. They told him that he was leader by right and that the people were obligated to do as he said. Rehoboam rejected the advice of those older and wiser than he. He decided that since he was the leader, the king, the people were obligated to do his will, not he to do theirs. Rehoboam discovered, as all leaders do, that the people were not obligated to follow him. They chose to reject his entitlement mentality and to follow someone who promised to rule more in line with their wishes. When Rehoboam attempted to enforce his control, he discovered that those he relied on did not have as much power as he imagined.
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. My work schedule has recently changed, meaning that I may not have time every day to complete these. As a result, I am trying to get several days ahead. I hope this does not negatively impact the quality of these posts (if that is possible). If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
This is a story of reconciliation and forgiveness. We can learn a lot about what it means to forgive by looking at what Joseph did in this story. I am not going to claim that we should model how we deal with those who have hurt us in the past the way that Joseph dealt with his brothers. Merely that we can learn something about forgiveness from this passage. Perhaps even more importantly we can learn something about what it means to repent of our past sins In this story, Joseph has forgiven his brothers (although we do not learn about that until the tomorrow’s passage). However, before he reveals this fact to them, or even the fact that he is their brother, he tests them to see if they have changed. Early on, he learns that they regret what they did to him. However, that is not enough, Joseph seeks to discover whether or not they have changed. Would they do it again? We learn that it is not enough to regret the sins we have committed, we must also have changed our attitudes such that we will not commit similar sins in the future. In the same way, we can forgive people for the wrong they have done us, but sometimes we need to confirm that they have changed before we reconcile with them and begin attempting to rebuild our relationship with them.
Jesus tells us another parable which reminds us that it is not up to us to decide who will receive God’s mercy or not. The “sorting” will occur at the end of time and will be done by God. This does not mean that we do not apply Church discipline, but we must do so humbly, recognizing that it is not up to us to decide who will receive God’s salvation and who will not.
When Jesus returned to Nazareth, the people there had trouble accepting His miracles because they knew His life story. This is something we have to be careful of. It is all too easy to say that someone cannot possibly be anyone of significance because we know their parents and their siblings and those are not people of great importance. Joseph and Mary and Jesus’ siblings were none of them “movers and shakers” in Nazareth, so the people of Nazareth thought that Jesus could not be anyone of importance either. Let us not make the same mistake.
As we read this psalm we are reminded that if we do not turn from following God’s commands to doing evil, we can be assured that God will rescue us from our enemies and whatever troubles come our way. Here in the middle is an important summary of part of God’s character:
To the faithful you show yourself faithful;
to those with integrity you show integrity.
To the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the wicked you show yourself hostile.
If you wish to find God you need to be faithful and live your life with integrity, those who live wicked lives will only find hostility when they seek God unless they change their ways.
The psalmist goes on to remind us that it is only through the strength which God gives us that we can face the challenges of this life. More than that, God will give us the strength to overcome any obstacle and defeat any enemy which stands between us and accomplishing the goals which He has set for us. Let us remember that God will shield us from all danger if we look to Him for protection. He is our solid rock and all of His promises prove true.
I read this proverb as telling us that the first step to gaining wisdom is to recognize that wisdom is more valuable than anything else we can obtain. If we wish to be wise we must believe that judging whether an action is wise is more important than any other characteristic an action, or its results, may have.
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.
The passage tells us that Solomon moved his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter out of the palace David had built. It goes on to tell us that he built a fleet of trade ships which sailed out of ports on the Red Sea. These ships were manned by crews provided to Solomon by King Hiram of Tyre. Solomon’s trading fleet spread his fame such that the Queen of Sheba came to see him for herself. She brought Solomon many gifts of great value and Solomon gave her gifts of great value to take home with her. The passage goes on to describe the great wealth which Solomon amassed.
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I had said in one of these blogs about King David that David appeared to have gained his power and wealth by acting to protect merchant caravans from bandits. It even appears that part of his reason for conquest was to eliminate kingdoms which provided a safe haven for bandits which raided the merchant caravans. I came to this conclusion largely by reading between the lines and would not want to argue the point with someone who disagreed (there is insufficient evidence to prove this). However, this passage makes it clear that Solomon gained his great wealth by sponsoring trade missions. He sent out trading fleets which returned with large amounts of wealth. It would seem likely that he sent out trading caravans as well.
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The passage concludes with the account of how Rehoboam lost control of the Northern Tribes upon Solomon’s death. When Rehoboam went to Shechem to be crowned king, the people of Israel requested that he promise to the forced labor and heavy taxes that his father, Solomon, had imposed on the people. Rehoboam first asked the advice those men who had been his father’s advisers. They told him that he should honor the request of the people of Israel and that if he did so, the people would be his faithful servants. Rehoboam rejected this advice and turned to the young men he had grown up with for advice more to his liking. They told him to tell the people of Israel that not only would he not reduce the burdens his father had imposed, but he would increase them.
Rehoboam took this bad advice and told the people of Israel that he would increase the burdens that his father had laid on them. As a result the peoples of the Northern Tribes refused to accept Rehoboam as their king and returned to their homes. Shortly after this Rehoboam sent out the official in charge of the forced labor to restore his control. However, the people of the Northern Tribes stoned that official to death. When the news of this reached Rehoboam, he fled back to Jerusalem.
Magrat playing on the gravel
Paul tells us that if we have the Spirit of God living within us we are no longer controlled by our sinful nature. Rather we are controlled by the Spirit. He further points out that everyone who belongs to Christ has the Spirit of Christ living within him, or her. Sin has brought death to our bodies, but if the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives within us He will raise us to life as well.
As a result, we are no longer obligated to obey our sinful nature. If we allow it to dictate our actions, we will follow it into death for eternity. On the other hand if we allow the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the sinful nature we will experience life eternal. The Spirit does not make us fearful slaves, rather it makes us the adopted children of a loving Father. As a result of this adoption, we are heirs with Christ to the glory of God. Paul then says something that is a bit scary. He tells us that while we will share in Christ’s glory, we will also share in His suffering.
Paul tells us that the suffering we experience now is as nothing to the glory that God will reveal to us in His time. He goes on to tell us that all of creation is suffering because of the consequences of sin. The day will come when creation will be freed from death and decay along with God’s children. We are suffering as we wait for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. But we await that day with eagerness, when we will experience our adoption to sonship and the redemption, not only of our souls, but of our bodies.
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This passage talks about the other side of the fear of God. While the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God, once we learn to know Christ we discover that God is a loving father. These two aspects of our relationship with God is something that is hard to understand. God does not want us to fear Him. It is just the natural reaction that we will have when we come to truly understand who and what God is. God wants us to know that He loves us. As we come to know Him we see that He does and that He cares for our every need, just as a loving father does for his children. In the same manner, God will discipline us when we do wrong, because He knows that when we do wrong we endanger ourselves and others. Magrat surveys her domain
To the faithful you show yourself faithful;
to those with integrity you show integrity.
To the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the wicked you show yourself hostile.
You rescue the humble,
but you humiliate the proud.
I have found this to be true. There are two sides to this. On the one hand those with the positive qualities of faithfulness, integrity and purity perceive others as having those same qualities, while the wicked perceive those who are good and powerful as hostile. On the other hand, God actually will be faithful, behave with integrity, and show purity to those who have those same qualities, while showing hostility to those who are wicked. Going on, those who are humble will find “chance”(I do not believe in chance, chance is generally the hand of God) coming to their rescue time and again, while those who are proud will find humiliation where others would find nothing of note.
Then the psalmist tells us something that should be self-evident, but too often is not for us.
God’s way is perfect.
All the Lord’s promises prove true.
He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.
If we follow the way that God has laid out for us, we will find that everything comes together for us. He will fulfill His promises, every last one of them. I will trust in the Lord and strive to follow the way that He has laid out for me.
Magrat stalks her prey
I can think of nothing to add to today’s proverb: “Children who mistreat their father or chase away their mother are an embarrassment and a public disgrace.”
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.
After imprisoning his brothers for three days, Joseph spoke to them and said that he would send them on their way, but he would keep one of them imprisoned as a hostage for their good behavior. Joseph told them if they were to bring their youngest brother Benjamin to him and then he would know that they were honest men. The brothers discussed among themselves that this must be God’s punishment against them for sending Joseph to his death (what they thought was his death). They were unaware that Joseph could understand them because he had used an interpreter to talk with them. Joseph gave orders that they be given the grain which they had come to buy. In addition, he gave secret orders that the silver they had used to buy the grain be placed in the sacks with the grain. Joseph selected Simeon as the hostage and had him bound in front of his brothers. Joseph then sent them on their way.
After departing Egypt the brothers discovered that the silver had been returned to them and were terrified. When they told Jacob what Joseph had demanded of them (they did not know that it was Joseph), he refused categorically to allow Benjamin to go even though Reuben offered his own sons as hostages for Benjamin’s safety. After some time, Jacob told his sons to go back to Egypt to buy more grain. They responded that they could not go unless they took Benjamin with them. Judah promised to look after Benjamin and told Jacob to hold him personally accountable for Benjamin’s safety. Jacob agrees and sends them for gifts for Joseph (not knowing that it was Joseph) and telling them to take double the amount of silver as the previous time so that they could return the silver that was in the sacks when they got home the last time.
When the brothers presented themselves to Joseph, he saw Benjamin with them. He gave orders that they be taken to his house and a feast be prepared. When the brothers were taken to Joseph’s house they were frightened, convinced that they were to be enslaved because of the silver that was returned to them. So they approached the steward of the house and explained that they had brought the silver back with them, plus additional silver to buy more food. The steward told them not to worry, it must have been God, the God of their father, who gave them the silver because he had received their silver on the last occasion and that grain was paid for. When Joseph came home for the meal, the brothers presented the gifts they had brought him and introduced him to Benjamin. When Joseph saw his brother Benjamin he was moved to tears. He left his brothers’ presence and composed himself. When he returned he ordered the food to be served. Joseph ate separate from his brothers. The brothers were amazed because they were seated in order of their ages, from eldest to youngest.
Today’s passage begins with a final parable about the Kingdom of Heaven from the series that was in yesterday’s passage. In this parable Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a net let down into the lake to catch fish. The net will catch all kinds of fish, some good and some bad. When the net is full the fishermen pull it onto the shore and collect the good fish and throw away the bad fish. Jesus tells us that at the end of the age God’s messengers will separate the wicked from the righteous and throw the wicked into the blazing furnace. This is a warning that it is not enough to be caught up in the net, to be part of a church body, we need to serve God with all of our hearts as well.
Soon after this Jesus returned to his home town. Initially, the people were amazed, but then they started to question why they should listen to Him and where He got the power to perform miracles. They recounted how they knew His family and they were not anything special. Jesus told His disciples that a prophet is not without honor except in his home town. This is a warning to us that we should not dismiss the word of God just because we are familiar with the background of the one who is speaking it. There is a human tendency to attempt to bring down those who rise above the common lot, especially when they are from those we know.
God has reached down and rescued me when I was in over my head. With God’s help I can charge through any barrier, scale any wall. When I am doing the Lord’s will nothing will block my path. I will not turn away from His commands because God’s way is the perfect way. God’s word is flawless and He will shield me. I will not turn from my God. Those who are devious will discover that God is even more savvy and canny than themselves, but those who are pure and faithful will discover that God is also pure and faithful. As long as I walk along the path that God has chosen for me, I will walk in the light.
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.
Today’s passage begins by telling us that Solomon built a palace and moved his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter, into it because the Ark of the Covenant had been King David’s palace and that made it Holy ground. We are further told that Solomon assigned the priests and Levites to their tasks in the Temple according to the system created by David.
The next story is one which has fascinated people throughout history. It is the story of the Queen of Sheba coming to visit Solomon. She had heard of Solomon’s great wisdom and came to see if the stories were true. We do not know where the Kingdom of Sheba was located, although modern scholars tend to favor a location on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula in what is now Yemen. That certainly makes sense to me as the reigning monarch of a kingdom could not afford to travel much further than that from their kingdom and expect to still be the ruler when they returned. In addition, reading between the lines of this story, it reads as a trading mission on her part and follows on the passage that tells us that Solomon sent trading ships sailing into the Indian Ocean. The Queen of Sheba brought gifts of great value to Solomon and he sent her home with gifts of equal or greater value (that sounds a lot like a trade mission). In addition, it is after the visit from the Queen of Sheba that we are given an account of the great wealth that Solomon gained through trade each year. Also, it is likely that her comment about Solomon’s great wisdom is a result of him understanding the value of his location as a hub of trade between Asia, Africa and Europe.
When Solomon died his son Rehoboam succeeded him to the throne. The people of Israel requested that he reduce the burden of government (taxes and forced labor) that Solomon had placed upon them. Rehoboam first discussed this request with his father’s advisers. They told him that if he agreed to the people’s demands they would be his loyal subjects. Rehoboam then asked the young men he had grown up with what they thought. They told him that he should tell the people that he was going to put even heavier demands upon them. When I read this, I want to ask them what they were thinking with advising such a course of action, but I know where this mindset comes from. Throughout history there have been the sons of the politically powerful who do not know or understand the things their fathers did to amass their power and think that people will have no choice but to bow to whatever whims they have. Rehoboam rejected the advice from his father’s advisers and took the advice of those he grew up with. This had the entirely predictable result that the Northern Tribes rebelled and chose Jeroboam as their king.
Paul continues his theme on slavery to sin by telling us that we are no longer slaves to our sinful nature. Instead we have been adopted as children of God. We no longer have an obligation to obey the sinful nature. If we continue to obey the sinful nature we will die. On the other hand, if we accept the power of the Holy Spirit to put to death the acts of our sinful nature, we will have life. God’s Spirit has made us His adopted children and heirs. God is not just our Father, but our Dad.
Paul points out that if we are to share in Jesus’ glory, we must also share in His suffering. He points out that the entire world is groaning as it awaits the day it will be finally completely freed from death and decay. I think Paul has a twofold meaning here. In part he is reiterating something Jesus said. Jesus said that since the world persecuted Him, we should expect it to persecute us. Paul is restating this here. But he is also talking about how our bodies are subject to the frailties and infirmities of this life. We should not expect to not get sick, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit provides us with a taste of what it will be like when we are released from all sin and suffering (I am not sure what he means by that). We, as believers, wait with hope for the day when our frail, sin-wracked bodies are replaced with new perfect bodies. We do not yet have bodies that are free from sickness, that is something that we must wait for patiently, but with confident hope that we receive them.
The psalmist tells us that even though his enemies attacked him when he was vulnerable, God rescued him and provided him with shelter. The psalmist tells us that God shows Himself faithful to those who are faithful and shows integrity to those who have integrity. This means that if God appears to be unfaithful, it is because we are unfaithful and if God appears to lack integrity it is because we lack integrity. I have noticed that the people who complain the most about not being able to trust others are those who are the least trustworthy. The psalmist goes on to tell us that God rescues the humble and humiliates the proud. There are two things here. The first is that we should not take credit for our successes but acknowledge the debt we owe to God for the things outside of our control that contributed to that success. The second is in some ways more important, we should not take credit for other people’s success, even if some of our actions contributed to that success.
In our society we do not think much about children who treat their parents badly. We spend much more time concerned with parents who abuse their children. Yet the Bible spends a lot of time talking about the importance of treating our parents with respect. I think that we can see all around us the impact of our society for the last two generations teaching many of our children to disrespect their parents and those older than themselves. I fear that many who believe that respect for parents comes naturally will soon receive an unpleasant surprise.
