For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
It is interesting to note that this proverb uses “house” when referring to the wicked, and “home” when referring to the righteous. The clear implication it that only the righteous truly have a home; the wicked merely have a place where they live.
When we cry to God for help we need to be honest with ourselves and with God. God has examined our hearts and tested our thoughts. He knows what we truly think and feel. We may convince ourselves of the lies we tell, but God will not be fooled. However, if we are honest when we pray to God, He will answer our prayers. Let us follow His commands because He has given them to us as expressions of His unfailing love. If we follow the path He has laid out for us, we will be kept safe from our enemies.
Jesus explained to His disciples that He taught in parables because only some are allowed to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven. In the NIV, verse 12 reads: “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” I have struggled to understand what He meant by this. The NLT translates verse 12 in the following way: “To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.”
The NLT reading makes Jesus’ meaning clear to me. Those who listen to Jesus’ teaching with the intent to understand it, will find more and more of it becoming clear as time goes on. On the other hand, those who listen to Jesus’ teachings with the intent of discovering its flaws will find it to make less and less sense and time goes on. In addition, the latter group will, over time, find themselves less and less able to recognize the difference between good and evil.
When Joseph was young he was his father’s favorite and dreamed of great things. He was convinced that those dreams were visions, and we know that they were indeed visions from God. His pride in the visions which God has given him lead to his downfall and he is sold into slavery by his brothers. He ends up in Potiphar’s house in Egypt. He does not forget his dedication to God and rises to high position in Potiphar’s house. This time it is his very faithfulness to God which leads to his downfall. He is imprisoned for a crime which he did not commit.
Despite this, Joseph remains faithful to God. Once more, Joseph’s faithfulness and integrity lead him to rise to the highest possible position. Despite the fact that he has risen to positions of authority time and again, Joseph takes no credit for his success. Rather he credits God for his skill and wisdom. It was Joseph’s continued faithfulness to God that put him in a position to raised to the highest level in the land when God’s time was right. We would do well to follow Joseph’s example. If we are faithful to God and maintain our integrity, He will open ever greater opportunities for us to serve Him.