For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
The best and easiest way to gain people’s respect is to demonstrate good judgment. If you try to gain one person’s respect by betraying the trust of another you will end up facing your own destruction. There are people who are proud of the fact that they never plan anything and always act on impulse. This proverb reminds us that acting on impulse is foolish and while it sometimes works out for the best, it is better to think things through before taking action.
I prefer the NIV for this psalm. This is probably because it is reminds me of the hymn, “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord” (which is based upon this psalm). I will make God’s faithfulness known to all generations. The first two verses are so appropriate today of all days:
I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever;
with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
through all generations.
I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.
It is because of God’s great love that Jesus was on the cross and because of that love that He rose from the dead. I will declare these facts for all to hear.
He is risen indeed
When the teachers of religious law challenged Jesus to tell them where He had gotten the authority for His actions, He turned the tables on them. By asking them whether John’s authority came from heaven, or was merely from man, He pointed out to the crowd that the religious teachers were really asking Him for a human authority to justify His actions. The crowd watching this exchange would have recognized that Jesus was telling them that if they could not tell whether John’s authority came from heaven or from men, they would be unable, or unwilling, to accept that His authority came from heaven.
The religious leaders were stung by Jesus’ remarks (and the parable He told after that confrontation). So they attempted to trap Him by asking if it was OK for Jews to pay taxes to Caesar. On the one hand, if Jesus said that it was not OK, they could have the Romans arrest Him and execute Him on grounds of stirring up rebellion. On the other side there were several angles they could use to diminish His standing with the crowds. First, paying taxes is never popular and a significant number of those who followed Jesus were just waiting for Him to start the rebellion against Rome. Second, and importantly, paying tax to Caesar could be interpreted as a form of idolatry since Caesar had declared himself a god.
Jesus’ answer was wonderful in many ways. First, from the perspective of non-Jews, Jesus’ answer was that Jews should pay Caesar’s tax. This meant that the religious leaders could not use it to have the Romans arrest Him. Second, it contained a condemnation of those who raised the question (and showed that they were indeed trying to trap Him). They were carrying a coin which had Caesar’s image on it and which declared him a god. If they had been the type of people they wanted the crowd to think they were, they would not have been carrying such a coin. Finally, Jesus’ answer told them that while the coin bore Caesar’s image, and thus belonged to him, we bear God’s image, and thus belong to Him.
Let us give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but let us never forget that we belong to God. Let us give all that we are to God’s service.
Once Joshua had finished allotting land to all of the other tribes of Israel, the Levites approached him and the other leaders of Israel requesting that they be given towns and surrounding lands according to Moses’ instructions. Once all of the land had been allotted the Israelites finished taking control of the land and the tribes with land east of the Jordan returned home. Before they crossed over the Jordan to the East, those tribes built a large altar as a memorial to their connection to the Israelites living west of the Jordan. The rest of the tribes of Israel believed that they had built the altar as a separate place of worship from the one where the Tabernacle was located and gathered their forces to cleanse the land of this idolatry. However, before taking action they sent a delegation to discover the reasons for the eastern tribes decision to build this altar. This is an important lesson for us. Before we judge the actions of another group we should speak with them and learn what their motives were and their intentions are.
