Those that talk smack will find that it comes around to bite them. The wise tell others of their weaknesses and admit others are better than themselves.
It is easy to keep things clean and organized if you never do anything, but you need to get things dirty and messed up if you want to get produce anything of value.
The wicked think that God will not take notice of their evil actions, but they are mistaken. God will rescue those who call on His name. God will protect us from the wicked. Unjust leaders claim that God is on their side while they issue decrees which encourage injustice, but such decrees will not protect the wicked from God’s judgment.
Jesus reminds the disciples of when he sent them out to preach the Good News. That time He had told them not to take any money, a traveler’s bag, nor spare clothes. Today, he tells them to make sure they have a sword. This has always bothered me. However, today I noticed that Jesus links His recommendation to buy a sword with the fulfillment of the prophecy that He would be counted among the rebels. When Jesus told His disciples to buy a sword, He was speaking rhetorically. That is why when they told Him they had two swords He said that was enough.
When the men came to arrest Jesus, His disciples asked if they should fight. One of them even drew his sword and attacked one of the men. But Jesus told them to stop. He even healed the man who had been struck. This supports the idea that He was speaking rhetorically when He told them to buy swords.
When Deborah was a prophet who judged Israel, God told her to call Barak, a warlord in Napthali, to lead an uprising against those oppressing Israel at the time. Barak was afraid to go to war against Israel’s enemies unless Deborah went with him. Deborah told him that she would go with him, but that as a result he would get no honor for his victory. There is a lesson here for us. We will receive more honor for accepting a commission if we take the commission than if we ask the one giving it to look over our shoulder.
For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have been convicted over the last few weeks to seek to develop a disciplined prayer life. It is still a work in progress. Please pray for me, that the Holy Spirit may show me how to pray in a disciplined manner.
Trusting a fool to deliver your messages will have a predictable outcome, and it is one that will be unpleasant. Proverbs can be useful shortcuts for learning, but a fool will use a proverb to avoid learning anything.
We generally honour people in order to encourage others to emulate them. If you honour a fool it is likely people will emulate the foolish behavior rather than that which you intended.
It may seem like God is taking His time in bringing the wicked to judgement. It may seem like God is not listening to the cries of the poor and oppressed. The wicked think that they can avoid suffering any consequences for killing widows, foreigners, and the fatherless. However, He who made our ears can surely hear, and how would He know to make eyes if He could not see?
Those who accept God’s discipline and learn from His instruction will experience joy. He will give them relief in troubled times. God will cause to be established governments which make judgements based on justice. He will raise up virtuous people who will pursue justice. When we start to doubt, let us call out to God. Then He will support us and lift us up. Trust in God and turn to Him when evil seems triumphant. He will turn the sins of the evil against them.
Paul tells us to stay away from foolish, ignorant arguments. They serve no purpose other than to start fights. This does not mean that we should stay away from all arguments, just foolish, ignorant ones. However, even with arguments we should get involved in we are to avoid being quarrelsome. Rather we should be king to everyone, able and willing to teach, and, most important for this context, patient with difficult people. Rather than argue forcefully and angrily, we should gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Let us rely on God to change the minds of those we disagree with, rather than trying to do so by the force of our arguments or personality. An important element of this is the willingness to allow God to change our minds if we are the ones in the wrong.
Paul describes what people will be like in the last days. He sounds like he is describing what many people are like today (in context it sounds like he was describing the people of that day as well). People love only themselves and their money. He describes such people in detail telling us that they will act religious but reject the power of God which could actually make them godly. The important point is that we should stay away from such people. He warns us that such people worm their way into people’s homes and gain control over gullible women. Women who are vulnerable to such people are burdened with guilt and controlled by various desires. Paul describes such women as always willing to listen to new teaching, but never coming to an understanding of the truth. Those who prey on such women have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith. A little further on Paul points out an important characteristic of such teachers. They will go from bad to worse. Most importantly, they will both deceive others and be deceived themselves.
It is worth repeating that those who work hard to deceive others about God’s truth are often easily deceived. This gives us an important lesson. When we are marshaling our arguments for the truth, check the facts we plan to use. If we allow ourselves to use “facts” which are not actually true, even if they support a true argument, we are setting ourselves up to be misled. We need to do our due diligence on the things we hear and confirm that they are true from sources who were either present when they happened or heard from someone who was there. If the story does not contain information which will allow you to check its veracity (where did it happen, when did it happen, who was there) do not use it in your arguments (except perhaps as an illustration of your point, rather than as support for your point).
Jeremiah told the people of Judah who fled to Egypt that they could not worship both God and the “Queen of Heaven”. This whole exchange reminds me of many people today who call themselves “Christians”, yet read their horoscopes daily and follow other idolatrous practices. You have to choose if you are going to follow idolatrous practices, or if you are going to worship God. God will not accept divided loyalties. We need to examine our lives and root out all forms of idolatry.
I like the NIV translation better here. Lashing out at others because your pride has been hurt is foolish. The wise choose their words carefully; using them to build a defense of their actions rather than to attack those who have offended their pride. If your first priority is keeping everything neat and orderly, you will never accomplish anything productive.
The psalmist asks how long it will be until God brings justice to the wicked and the proud. Then he reminds the wicked who oppress the weak and powerless that God is indeed watching and keeping track of their deeds. God will exact justice from those who kill widows, orphans, and foreigners for their own benefit. Those who do evil may think that God can not, or will not, call them to account for their evil, but they are mistaken. It may seem that His judgement falls more frequently on those who only do minor wrongs. However, that is not His judgement, rather it is discipline to offer the chance to return to Him. Let us learn from God’s discipline and listen closely to His instructions. Then we will receive relief from troubled times and not fall subject to His coming judgement. God will turn the sins of those who do evil against them, but He will be a fortress protecting those who accept His discipline. Oh Lord, let me always respond to your discipline!
Jesus reminds His disciples that when He sent them out to preach the Good News, they took nothing with them except the clothes on their backs and they wanted for nothing. Now He tells them to gather all the supplies for a trip that they can and to sell their cloak to get a sword if they don’t have one. Then when they tell Him that they have two swords among them, He tells them that that is sufficient. It seems to me that the message Jesus was conveying here is that there are times when we should go out on faith, fully relying on God to provide for our needs and there are other times when we should plan for trouble and gather what supplies we will need to get through the hard times ahead. It seems that His instruction about buying swords was to emphasize the importance of preparing for all eventualities, rather than an instruction to take up arms to do violence.
When Deborah was judge over the people of Israel, they were oppressed because they had not kept God’s commands. However, God had Deborah call Barak, the war leader of the tribe of Naphtali, to raise warriors. Barak accepted her commission, but insisted that he would only go out to battle if she accompanied him. Because Barak did not trust Deborah’s prophecy enough to act on it without her at his side, the glory for the final victory went to someone else. Barak was the battle commander, but it was Deborah who told him when it was the time and place to attack. And it was Jael, the wife of a Kenite, who killed the general of the opposing forces. It was Jael who ended the war, because if Sisera had escaped he would have been able to raise another army and return to raid the Israelites. Barak and his warriors would have needed to disband so that they could return to their land to raise their crops.
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.
When Jeremiah confronted the people of Judah who had fled to Egypt over their idolatry, they responded that they had done such things when times were prosperous for them and would continue doing them until they brought about prosperity once more. Jeremiah now tells them that such behavior will merely bring more destruction and misery down on their heads. Their refusal to give up the sins for which God had judged them would lead to hardship and death. However, Jeremiah also had a word for those who remained faithful. He told them that God would protect them from the coming troubles.
…
This reminds me of so many people who I know. The people to whom Jeremiah was speaking refused to recognize that the behaviors they were continuing were the ones which brought the times of prosperity to an end. They were convinced that by practicing the sins and idolatry which had brought God’s judgment against them when they had been prosperous they could return to that time of prosperity. We will not gain prosperity by continuing the mistakes that brought our prosperity to an end.
Paul tells us the key to pleasing God. I will follow his advice and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. The key to reaching those goals is spending time in fellowship with those who call on the Lord. The next thing Paul writes challenges me. All too often, I see people say foolish things and I seek to correct them. Then I allow myself to be drawn into foolish arguments. Rather than argue with those who believe things contrary to God’s truth (the only truth that there is, all truth is God’s truth), I will strive to gently point out the truth to them and allow God’s Spirit to change their hearts.
The next part sounds so descriptive of our society today. All too many people today love only themselves and their money. People hold nothing sacred and have no self-control. Some put on a show of godliness, but do not allow God’s Spirit to govern their actions. They worm their ways into homes and take control of the gullible. The gullible ones are those who are always seeking the truth, but never willing to accept it when they find it.
However, Paul tells us how we can both strengthen our faith and avoid being deceived by those who oppose the truth.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.(NIV)
So, I will study the Scripture so that I may avoid deceit and be equipped to accomplish whatever good work God provides for me to do.
The wicked convince themselves that God will not hold them accountable. They either think that He is not there, or that He does not care. However, the sins of the wicked will turn back on them and lead to their destruction. Those who oppress and murder the powerless will discover that their sins bring about their own destruction. God will see that justice is served.
If you ask a fool to deliver a message for you, the message is likely to get garbled and you will be worse off than if the recipient had never received the message. A fool who knows a proverb will misuse it.
The last couple of days have been very busy at work, so I have been getting these posted later than I would like. I hope that has not caused any problems for those close to the International date line. I will say that even though my routine has been disrupted, working on these has been an even greater blessing than usual for me.
I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. 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 the death of Ehud, the Israelites once more sinned and God turned them over to a Canaanite king and his general, Sisera. Sisera ruthlessly oppressed the Israelite people until they cried out to God for relief. At the time, Deborah was serving as a judge for Israel. One day, at God’s instruction, she summoned Barak son of Abinoam. She told him that God commanded him to call out warriors from the tribes of Napthali and Zebulun and go to war against Sisera.
Barak said that he would only go if Deborah went with him. She responded by telling him that she would go, but as a result Barak would get no credit for the victory. Sisera would die at the hands of a woman. So Barak mustered the troops of Napthali and Zebulun. When Sisera hears that the Israelites were mustering, he gathered his forces to attack them. The Israelites ambushed Sisera’s army and threw it into disarray. Sisera escaped on foot while the Israelites killed his entire force.
Sisera ran to the tent of Jael, who was married to Heber the Kenite. Heber’s family was on friendly terms with the king who Sisera served. Jael greeted Sisera and invited him into her tent, where she covered him with a blanket. When Sisera asked her for some water to drink, she instead gave him some milk from a leather bag (this suggests to me that the writer is suggesting that the milk was fermented). Sisera told her to stand at the door of the tent and if anyone asked if someone was inside to tell them “No”. Sisera soon fell asleep from exhaustion. As soon as he did, Jael crept up to him and pounded a tent peg through his temple into the ground, killing him. Shortly after this Barak came in pursuit of Sisera. When he came by Jael’s tent, she came out and brought him in to see Sisera, dead on the floor of her tent. From that time forward the Israelites pushed back against the king that Sisera had served until they destroyed him completely.
As they are talking after the meal, Jesus asks them if when he sent them out with no money or supplies if they lacked for anything. To which the disciples replied that they did not. Jesus then tells them that now, if they have a purse they should take it with them and a bag if they have that. He goes on to say that if they do not have a sword, they should sell their cloak and get one. When His disciples tell Him that they have two swords among them He tells them that this is enough. I never before noticed that Jesus contrasted His instructions here with when He sent them out without any gear. I find that very interesting. I think at least part of the message of this passage is that while sometimes we should go forth completely relying on God to provide for us, at other times we should prepare in advance and gather what gear we need. It also seems to me that when the disciples pointed out that they had two swords, Jesus told them that was enough because they were not getting what He was saying.
When they were finished, Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives, accompanied by His disciples, as He had been doing since He arrived in Jerusalem. When they got to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told His disciples to pray that they would not fall into temptation. He then withdrew about a stone’s throw and prayed to the Father that He take the cup of suffering from Him, but also prayed that He would surrender to God’s will. The passage tells us that an angel appeared to Him and strengthened Him. He returned to where His disciples were and found them asleep. He woke them asking them why they were sleeping and told them to stay awake and pray not to fall into temptation.
While He was speaking to them a crowd led by Judas came upon them. Judas approached Jesus to kiss Him in greeting. Jesus confronted Judas that He was betraying Him with a kiss. Jesus’ disciples, remembering what He had said earlier about swords, asked if they should strike with their swords and one of them immediately did so. Jesus told them to stop and promptly healed the man His disciple had injured. Jesus then confronted the crowd, saying that He had been in the Temple every day and they made no attempt to arrest Him there. That they waited until after dark to arrest Him was very revealing of their motivations.
I read this psalm and immediately saw that it is a warning and a comfort to the righteous that God will avenge those who do wrong. It talks about how the wicked are arrogant and boast in their wickedness. Then I got to verse 7:
They kill widows and foreigners
and murder orphans.
It goes on to say that the wicked think “God isn’t looking and besides He doesn’t care.” This made me think of the trial of Dr. Gosnell and of those who enabled him to go on for so long. He is on trial for killing a woman who could be viewed as a widow, she had no husband or father to act as her protector. She was certainly a foreigner, a refugee from Bhutan. He is also on trial for killing babies which survived his attempts to abort them. I would certainly say that by my understanding of God’s reckoning, an infant whose mother desires to kill it while it is still in the womb is an orphan. When you hear the testimony about Dr. Gosnell’s attitude towards the women who came to his “clinic” and the babies which he killed. He certainly fit the bill of one who thought that God did not care about what he was doing. Dr. Gosnell is not alone. There are others like him and there are those who chose to look the other way because it was politically advantageous to do so.
The psalmist goes on to point out what fools they are. Do they really think that the one who created their ears is deaf? Do they really think that He who made their eyes cannot see? The psalmist goes on to tell us that the wicked will receive their just reward, that those who gang up against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death will face the judgment of God. God will stand forth and protect those who call on His name. He will exact justice for the powerless and not only on those who commit the acts, but on those rulers whose edicts permit injustice. Those political leaders who found it politically expedient to turn a blind eye to those who committed evil acts, will face God’s judgment.
Magrat next to hyacniths
A fool talks big, but ends up suffering for his braggadocio. The wise are cautious in what they say and are careful to only commit to what they can accomplish.
It is easy to keep the stable clean if you don’t have oxen in it, but oxen are necessary to plant and harvest crops in any quantity.
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.
Jeremiah tells those from Judah that had fled to Egypt that God was going to bring disaster upon them because they refused to give up their worship of other gods. He goes on to tell Baruch, who has been his scribe and assistant, that while he will not have opportunity to do great things God will keep him safe. The passage then goes on to record the prophecy that Jeremiah made against Egypt when Pharaoh Neco was marching out to attack the Babylonians. Jeremiah predicted their complete defeat. Jeremiah also predicted the destruction of the Philistines.
Paul tells Timothy to avoid the evil desires of youth and instead pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. Advice that we all should follow. We should stay out of foolish, ignorant arguments because they can only lead to fights and feuds. We should be gentle with everyone and patient with people who are difficult. We should gently instruct those we disagree with, relying on God to reach their hearts and show them the truth.
Paul then goes on to describe what people will be like in the last days. It sounds so much like what people are like today. So much of our culture honors people like Paul described. People who love only themselves and their money. People who scoff at God and are boastful and proud. They are disobedient and ungrateful. They consider nothing sacred. People will be unloving and unforgiving. They will slander others and exercise no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will act religious but reject the power that might make them godly. They will take advantage of the vulnerable. Does this not sound like the culture around us?
We will suffer persecution as we strive to live godly lives. We must continue to study the Scripture because it is inspired by God, or God-breathed. Scripture is useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. By studying the Scripture we can become equipped for every good work that comes our way.
Another Selection from God’s Paint-By-Numbers Hickory Run Collection
The wicked may seem to prosper for a while, but God will bring judgement on them. He will turn their sins against them and they will pay the price. But those who trust in God can rely on Him to be their fortress and defense. When we start to slip, He will support us. When doubts fill our mind, if we turn to Him, He will comfort us and give us joy.
There are three proverbs about dealing with fools. The first tells us not to rely on a fool to convey a message. They will either not deliver it, or they will deliver it in such a manner that it is misunderstood. The second tells us that when a fool knows wise sayings, they will apply them in an inappropriate manner. Finally we learn that giving honors to a fool is completely non-productive.
