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.
Hosea proclaimed the reasons for God’s judgment against the Kingdom of Israel. The people have abandoned morality. He warns them to examine themselves, not to point the finger against someone else. The religious leaders profit from the sins of the people, so they encourage them to sin rather than encouraging them to be righteous. The people refuse to acknowledge God and reject any knowledge of Him. They turn to idols and superstitious nonsense to predict the future. The people offer sacrifices to all sorts of idols. As a result their young women lead lives of sexual debauchery, as do their young men. There are no morals in the land. They refuse to recognize the connection between their lack of morals and their problems, both economic and political. As I read this it reminds me of our society today. I will not point the finger at others. God is calling me to live a morally exemplary life and I have not done so. I will ask God to place His Spirit within me and transform me into the person He desires me to be.
Reading this, I believe that John wrote this letter to a specific person, but even so God meant his message for all of us. This letter contains the same theme(s) which John wrote in the one I finished yesterday. God commands us to love one another. John reminds us that God’s commands are about loving. We may not always understand the connection between God’s commands and loving each other, but nevertheless if we do not follow God’s commands about morality and integrity we are not acting out of love.
If you listen closely to those who say that we can love without following the God’s moral teachings you will soon realize that John’s secondary theme here is very appropriate. Those who teach such things also teach, often with great subtly and guile, that Jesus did not actually live as a man. John warns us to have nothing to do with those who teach that Jesus did not live, die, and rise from the dead. No matter how good the rest of what they teach sounds, it does not come from God.
Those who trust in the Lord will be as secure as a mountain that cannot be shaken, even by earthquakes. God will surround His people and keep them from harm. This psalm addresses one of Hosea’s themes in a different way. The wicked will not rule the land of the godly, so if our rulers are wicked we need to look at ourselves. Let us turn from wickedness to God and call on God to banish those who will not turn from wickedness from among us.
Be careful if you find yourself in the presence of someone who hates those with integrity because they will seek the downfall of anyone who tries to live a righteous life. We have been told that it is bad to control our anger and bottle it up, yet a wise man does not allow himself to be controlled by anger.