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.

     Once Aaron and his sons ordination was complete, Aaron offered sacrifices for the people. Aaron prepared the offering and placed it on the altar with the assistance of his sons. After Aaron had placed the portions on the altar that were to be burned, he and Moses went into the Most Holy portion of the Tabernacle. When they came back out they blessed the people once more and the glory of the Lord appeared before the people. Fire then blazed out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the sacrifices waiting on the altar. The people shouted for joy and worshiped the Lord.
     Two of Aaron’s sons placed coals in their incense burner and put the incense on top of it. This was in violation of the commands God had given Moses on how the incense was to be burned before Him. As a result fire blazed forth from God’s presence and burned them to death. I do not fully understand why this happened here, but this is a story that, for me, brings home what the Bible means when it says that we should fear the Lord. These two men were insufficiently afraid of God, which led them to take a casual approach to following His commands. Because they failed to follow His commands closely tragedy struck and they died. We should strive to carefully follow the Lord’s commands in every aspect of our lives.

     In this passage Jesus tells two parables about the Kingdom of God. In both of them He compares it to a seed. The first parable compares it to a seed planted by a farmer. The farmer plants the seed in the ground and then it grows. It does not matter whether the farmer sleeps or is awake, the seed grows just the same. The farmer does not understand how the seed grows. All by itself the seed grows into a plant that bears fruit. The Kingdom of God works the same way. All we can do is plant the seed of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit will cause it to be watered and to grow into a strong and fruitful plant. In the second parable Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed. The mustard seed is a very small see, yet it grows into a large plant. In the same way, small efforts on behalf of God often have impact far out of proportion to the initial action. Between these two parables there are many lessons for Christians today. The first lesson is to spread the Word of God far and wide without worrying about how or why it will grow. All too often we spend too much time in our churches trying to figure out how to make the Church grow. The first of these parables tells us not to worry about how. We are to faithfully spread the Word without worrying about being “relevant”. The Word of God is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. We may not understand how, but according to Jesus, that’s not our responsibility. The other problem we have is that we think our group is too small to make a difference. Jesus tells us that if we faithfully follow God’s commands the results we witness will be out of all proportion with the size of the effort we make. I do not mean that this means that we should ignore whether or not something works, but the first question we should ask ourselves is, “What does God want us to do?” It is only when we are unclear as to the answer to that question that we should ask, “Well, what works?” I was going to write that we should never ask ourselves, “What difference can I make?” but that is not true. We should ask ourselves, “What difference can I make?” It’s just that we need to remember that the answer is never “None”. One person who is faithful to God’s call on their life can change the world. We may never see the difference we make, but if we faithfully follow God’s will for our lives that difference will be there none-the-less.
     In the early evening Jesus and His disciples started across the lake. As they crossed the lake a storm blew up and nearly swamped the boat. Meanwhile Jesus was sleeping in the stern of the boat. His disciples were terrified and could not understand how Jesus could sleep through the storm. They woke Him, He got up and rebuked the storm. It immediately became calm. Jesus then asked His disciples why they were so afraid, did they lack faith? How often do we become terrified when the storms of life arise? Do we recognize that Jesus is the One who calms the storms and there is no need to fear because He is right here with us? Or do we panic and try to control every little detail, afraid that He is sleeping? God is not sleeping, if we patiently wait for His time He will calm all of the storms that life throws at us.
     When they reached the other side of the lake, a man possessed by a evil spirits came down to meet Him. When Jesus commanded the spirits to comes out of the man, they begged Him to allow them to go into the pig herd nearby. Jesus gave them that permission and the spirits caused the pigs to rush into the lake and drown. Those tending the pigs went and told people in the surrounding area what had happened. When the people came to investigate, they discovered this notorious “crazy” man sitting there dressed and in his right mind. This terrified the people. When those who had been present told them the whole story they begged Jesus to leave the area. As Jesus left, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with Him. However, Jesus told him to stay with his own people and tell them what the Lord had done for him. The man went around the region and told people what Jesus had done for him and they were amazed.
     This story has several elements that I want to touch on. The first is the desire of the spirits to move into the pigs rather than be sent away from that area completely and Jesus allowing them to do so. Followed by the spirits causing the pigs to run into the lake and drown. The reason I want to touch on it is because there is something going on here that I do not understand. I can see some pieces of it. Pigs were unclean animals and the people of this area were herding them and using them as food. Another piece is that Jesus was more concerned with the well-being of people than He was with that of pigs. That’s it. There is more to the role of the pigs in the story than that, but I don’t know what it is. The other element to the story is one that I do see what is being got at. The man wants to follow Jesus, but Jesus tells him to go home and tell his story to the people around him. The man wants to join the “ministry” by becoming one of those following Jesus around. Jesus tells him that is not the role God has for him. His role is to return to his mundane life and share with the people he meets what God has done for him. It is human nature to want the glory of spending our lives in jobs where we obviously serve God, but most of us are called to serve God in other ways. We need to tell those we meet what God has done for us, so that they can be amazed by His love and grace.

     This psalm makes some great points. It tells us that the righteous speak wisdom and what is just. They do not stumble because they plant their feet on what is firm. The wicked attempt to ambush them, but God protects them. The wicked and ruthless may seem to prosper, but before long they disappear from history no more to be found. In the meantime, God looks out for the upright and protects them. The future belongs to the righteous. We do not need to plan how we will defeat the wicked. All we need to do is place our trust in the Lord and He will provide us with salvation and protection from the wicked. We may not see how God will bring us to victory, but if we follow His will all will be well for us.

     This proverb fits right in with today’s psalm. It tells us that the righteous will be blessed in all that they do, while the wicked will use words to hide their evil intentions. The righteous will be remembered as people to be emulated and whose lives we all wish to live, while the lives of the wicked will be regarded as a fate to be avoided at all cost, if they are remembered at all.