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.

     Today’s passage contains instructions for various types of offerings to be offered before God. There are lessons to be learned from these instructions, but none that stand out to me today. The passage ends with the command that they are never to eat the fat of animals or their blood.

     Today’s passage tells us that when Jesus went down to the lake in Galilee to preach He instructed His disciples to have a boat ready, in case the crowd pressed into Him too heavily. Jesus had healed many. As a result those with diseases were always pressing in to get close to Him. Whenever those with impure spirits saw Jesus, the spirits caused them to fall down at His feet and proclaim that He was the Son of God. Jesus gave them strict orders not to repeat this to others.
     Jesus went up on the mountainside and called some of His followers to Him there. From that group Jesus appointed twelve to accompany Him and for Him to send out to preach. He also gave those twelve the power to cast out demons.
     At one point Jesus and His disciples entered a house and a crowd gathered. The crowd became so constant that Jesus and His disciples did not even have time to eat. When word got back to His family about this, some of them came to take charge of Him because they thought He had lost His mind (it is interesting to me that we never learn why they did not follow through). While this was happening some teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem began to claim that Jesus was able to cast out demons because He was possessed by the prince of demons. Jesus pointed out that it makes no sense to postulate that Satan was giving Him the power to cast out demons. What would Satan gain by casting out the demons that he had caused to possess people? Such an action by Satan could have no outcome except to weaken his control over people. Jesus then makes an interesting comment. He tells us that any sin we commit or slander we utter can be forgiven. Except for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.
     Jesus does not tell us what it means to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. However we can draw some conclusions from the context. The teachers of the law had just attributed Jesus casting out demons to Satan. Jesus was casting out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit, it seems to me that Jesus was saying that attributing that to Satan was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Jesus was telling us that when we attribute the clearly good actions of the Holy Spirit to evil causes and motives, we risk eternal damnation.

     The psalmist tells us that we should not worry about the wicked, nor envy those who appear to prosper by wrongdoing. They will only prosper for the short-term. If we trust in the Lord and do good, He will see that in the long-term we prosper. We are to patiently wait for God, we should not fret when those around us succeed by doing evil. If we remain meek and trust God, we will inherit the land. We must let go of our anger and wrath. If we hold onto them and worry about how others are succeeding through doing evil, we, also, will do evil. Instead we should be patient and meek and wait for God to move in His time.

     God will provide for those who righteously server Him, while the wicked are always craving more. Laziness leads to poverty while hard work leads to prosperity.