For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
The path to leadership is hard work. If you want to be a leader, work hard. Those who are lazy end up being forced to do work that few would choose for themselves.
God is forgiving and will give us many opportunities to turn from our selfishness and rebellion. However, if we continue to rebel against Him our sins will eventually bring His judgment down upon us. This is true of us as individuals and as a people.
When Christ returns will He find us doing the work to which He called us? We do not know when Christ will return, therefore we must be prepared all of the time. I find it interesting that Jesus contrasts the faithful servant who feeds the other servants with the wicked servant who beats the other servants, feeds himself, and gets drunk. The lesson here is that we are either faithful servants who are providing for the needs of our fellow servants, or, we are evil servants who are abusing our fellow servants while satisfying our own wants.
Jesus goes on from that to tell us that He did not come to bring peace on earth. Rather, He came to bring division. He tells us that families will be split apart over what they think of Him. He goes on to tell us that the source of this division is our unwillingness and/or inability to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. I have read this passage many times and I do not think I ever noticed before that Jesus said that one of the reasons for our divisions was our failure to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. This is an important point. We are not to rely on what a priest, or a pastor, or a reporter/commentator, or a politician (I could go on, but I think you get the point) tells us is the right thing or the wrong thing. We are supposed to listen to the Holy Spirit and figure it out for ourselves. He is not telling us that we should not listen to those people, but we should make up our own minds as to what is right and what is wrong.
This can be easily interpreted as moral relativism, but Jesus is not saying that right and wrong are subjective. He is telling us that we cannot excuse our failure to do what is right by appealing to authority.
Moses promises that God will give justice to those who are His people, those who serve Him. He will extract vengeance against those who oppress His servants. We do not need to seek revenge for the harms we have suffered. God will pay back those who deserve it.