For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
Today’s proverb reminds me of a small skit I am doing with some friends in the near future. It is called “Pantalone’s Worry Box.” It is about a miser who loses all of his money because he spends it in various efforts to avoid losing it. In many ways that is what this proverb is about, although not completely. Those who are generous, who spend their wealth (whether money or goods) in order to help others will prosper in all they do. This does not mean that they will gain great material wealth (although it might). It means that they will gain that which is truly valuable, the love of others and of God.
On the other hand, misers will lose everything of true value (and likely their wealth as well).
This psalm contains an invitation we should be eager to accept…and to extend to others. We are invited/encouraged/commanded to joyously praise God. If we are not already eager to do this, the psalmist extends us another invitation, “Come and see what our God has done.” If you have done the latter, you will do the former. Those who have seen the marvelous things which God has done cannot help but praise Him loudly and joyously. If you are not enthusiastically praising God, I invite you too to come and see what He has done, is doing, will do!
Today’s passage contains four stories with three separate themes: one about bringing God’s good news to sinners, one about accepting change, two about the fact that God’s law never forbids doing good. Yet, in a way, they all have one theme. Really, they are all about not thinking we are better than others. In every one of these cases those challenging Jesus were saying, “Look how much better than those others we are. We don’t associate with sinners. We fast regularly. We don’t do anything which could be mistaken for work on the Sabbath. We are better than everyone else.” Jesus answer is “All have turned away. No one does good.”
There is more to this than I can find the words to express today. It is not that there are not some people who are better than others. It is just that if you think you are one of them, you are wrong. I have known, and know, a few people who are better than most people…and every single one of them would have denied it with every fiber of their being. Not only that, they would have thought you were crazy for even imagining that they were better than someone else. Not everyone who thinks they are the scum of the earth and the lowliest of the low is a good person, but no one who does not know that they are the lowliest of the low and the greatest of sinners is a good person.
This passage reminds us that one thing we do to address a social problem opens up the possibility of another social problem, that something we do to correct an injustice in one area might lead to an injustice in another. We need to pay attention to unintended consequences of our actions.
Deuteronomy means (basically) “second law”. The laws which God had given out to Moses and the Israelites were presented at various points throughout Leviticus and Numbers. Deuteronomy is written, in part, to bring all of these laws together and show how they fit together. The book starts with a speech which Moses gave the Israelites as they camped on the eastern side of the Jordan River. Moses’ speech is a recap of their travel from Mt Sinai to where they were when he gave the speech.
Moses explains how the Israelites rebelled against God when they failed to trust God and enter the Promised Land and then rebelled again and strove to enter the land when God told them the punishment for their rebellion. These events are a reminder to us that if we hesitate when God calls us to a task the window of opportunity may close. If we hesitated to answer God’s call, the moment may pass and now He has other plans for us.
