For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
Those who are lazy exaggerate the dangers of any particular course of action which might increase their workload. If you find yourself making up reasons not to work, you are probably lazy in the way the proverb writer uses the term.
Today’s psalm reminds us that there are times when the faithful will suffer for following God. Persecution and suffering are not always a result of unfaithfulness. There are times when God allows His people to be persecuted in order to advance His purposes. When such times come, let us rejoice that God has found us worthy of such suffering. However, we can still call on God to rescue us from such suffering.
Paul makes an important point to start this passage. IF we believe something we will speak about that belief. If we believe the Gospel, we will tell others about it. Do you tell others about what you believe? Or are you afraid of them rejecting you because of your belief? We should fear God’s rejection more than we fear the rejection of our fellow humans.
Paul goes on to talk about the nature of our being after death. The importance of this cannot be stressed enough. We are not spirit beings who have bodies, nor are we bodies which have spirits. Our physical bodies are not inherently evil. We are not looking forward to a day when we will be pure spirit. Our desire to leave our current bodies, with their many pains and weaknesses, is not a desire to become a pure spirit. Rather it is a desire to be transformed into the heavenly bodies which God has promised us.
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Elihu finishes up his rebuke of Job by pointing out how little we understand about how God’s creation works. Elihu goes onto point out that even if we understood how things like the weather work, we would still be far from being able to control it. Finally, he points out that we cannot even look directly at the Sun. How much less are we able to look directly at God?
Then God replies to Job. God’s monologue reminds me of what Ken Ham says regarding those who proclaim that Genesis does not accurately describe the creation of this Universe, “How do you know? Were you there? Did you see it happen?” God’s response to Job is essentially that and a little more. How can we hope to understand and judge God’s actions when there is so many things we do not know or understand about this world? There is too much in this world that we do not know or understand that we cannot begin to comprehend the reasons and justifications for everything we experience. Our limited, finite minds are unable to fully grasp the complexities involved in the decisions which God makes.