August 5, 2013 Bible Study — God Chose the Foolish Things

     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.

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Ezra 1-2:70

     Today’s passage tells us that shortly after Cyrus the Persian conquered Babylon he issued a decree permitting, even encouraging, the Jewish people to return to the lands of Israel and to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. This fulfilled the prophecy that God had given through Jeremiah. In response to Cyrus’ proclamation a large number of Jews, in particular Levites and descendants of priests, were moved to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. God led their neighbors to donate towards the expense of the journey. Cyrus gathered together the articles that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple when he conquered Jerusalem. Cyrus gave those articles to the leader of the exiles returning to Jerusalem.
     When they arrived at Jerusalem, some of the family leaders gave from their own funds towards the expenses of rebuilding the Temple. The priests and Levites, along with some other people, settled in and around Jerusalem. The rest of the returning exiles settled in their ancestral towns throughout what had been Israel.

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1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5

     Today’s passage begins with verse 18, but I am going to back up and start with verse 17 because I think it is necessary to get context. In verse 17 Paul says that God sent him to preach the Good News, but not with clever speech (or as the NIV says, “not with eloquence and wisdom”). He goes on from there to say that the message of the cross is viewed as complete foolishness to those who have not accepted God’s free offer. However, to those whom God has called it is the power and wisdom of God.

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     I was going to do what I normally do and write a synopsis of this and then make my comments on what it meant, but that just was not working for me today. Paul tells us that people demand proof that God exists. Some people are looking for miraculous signs that prove God’s existence, others want to have God proven by logical argument starting from the assumptions they make about the world. But that is not what God offers. Instead, God offers the Jesus crucified, the opposite of a miraculous sign and logically ridiculous. We cannot discover God on the basis of our own wisdom and power. God chose the foolish and the powerless in order to shame those who relied on their own wisdom and power. We can never boast about anything except for the power of God.
     Paul goes on to tell them that when he came to them, he resolved to know nothing except for Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. If we look at Luke’s account in the Book of Acts, we see that Paul first went to Corinth after spending some time in Athens. In Athens, Paul tried to argue with the philosophers and was laughed out of town because they thought the idea of resurrection from the dead was preposterous. This led Paul to realize that he would never bring anyone to follow Christ by his personal power of persuasion.
     I used to have this image of Paul as a persuasive, engaging speaker who could lay out the argument for Christianity in careful, logical ways. Over the last few years, I have become ever more convinced that Paul was a boring speaker whose arguments never quite connected for those who did not share his basic worldview. On top of that, he was physically unimpressive. As a messenger of the Gospel, he had only two things going for him. The first was his absolute, unwavering belief that accepting the Gospel he preached was the only path to leading a truly fulfilling life (and that those who failed to do so would suffer as a result of that failure). The second was a to-the-bone fear that somehow it might be his fault if someone failed to accept that Gospel. Actually, he had one more thing going for him, a complete and utter trust that the Holy Spirit was capable of reaching even the most depraved sinner (resulting from his utter conviction that he had been the most depraved sinner to ever live). I am convinced that if we met Paul in the flesh, we would be utterly baffled by how he was able to reach so many people for the Lord.
     We will never lead someone else to Christ by the logic of our arguments, nor by the persuasiveness of our speech. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that someone will come to faith in Christ.

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Psalm 27:7-14

     There were two pieces of this psalm that stood out for me today. The first was:

My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”

Have you heard the Lord calling you? I can assure that He is. I would like to add that when I hear God say to me, “Come and talk with me,” I do not always respond, “Lord, I am coming.” All too often, I respond, “I’m busy. I’ll be with you shortly.” I do this despite knowing from experience that I am passing up a blessing by doing so. I pray that God’s Spirit will move within me so that in the future I no longer do that.
     Then at the end of the psalm there is a message for me in the situation of my life right now. I am asking God to bring about a change in my life and this seems to be His answer for now:
Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous.
Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

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Proverbs 20:22-23

     If someone has wronged you, do not attempt to get them back. Leave the matter in God’s hands, if they have truly wronged you, God’s justice will be so much more fitting than anything you could exact yourself. And if by some chance you are blaming the wrong person, you will not be guilty of bringing harm on the innocent.
     An important reminder that God does not approve when we treat some people different than others. We should treat all people fairly and make honest exchanges.

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