For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
The proverb writer tells young men to listen to their father. He is giving them the best advice that he can. Your father was once someone’s son. No matter what your father teaches you, hold on to wisdom and develop good judgment. With those two tools, you will be able to listen to what your father teaches you and distinguish between what he says which is wise and what represents lessons he has incompletely learned. However, never make the mistake of thinking you know more than your father.
I will make God my strength and my fortress. It is to Him I will turn for protection. We may seem to be at the end of our ropes about to die and God may seem far away, but He will hear our cry. No matter how far away He may be, God is not so far from us that He cannot arrive in time to rescue us. It matters not what obstacles have been put in His path, He will brush them aside, destroying whatever stands between Him and delivering us. Our enemies may think they have planned so as to prevent Him from reaching us, but they will not see God coming until it is too late. I will trust in the Lord and be faithful to Him when times are good, then I will know that I can trust in Him when times are bad and trouble is at the door.
Jesus tells us several parables that describe aspects of the Kingdom of Heaven in today’s passage. In the first of these, He describes weeds growing up among the crops in a field. Rather than send His workers to weed the field, God tells them to wait until the harvest to separate the weeds from the crop. The problem with trying to pull the weeds before the harvest is that we will accidentally pull some of the crop as well. This is the problem with trying to decide who, and who is not, a Christian. Some of those we decide look like “weeds” will turn out to be part of the “good crop”. If we “pull” them up before they are ripe we lose the opportunity to experience the fruit they would have produced. It is not our job to sort the “weeds” from the “good crop”. Let God sort them out when the time comes.
Next we have the parable of the mustard seed. There are probably other ways to look at this, but for me it is a reminder not to worry that our starting point in addressing a problem is small. The mustard seed is very small, but the plant which grows from it is very large. In the same way, those whom God has called to a task may seem too few to accomplish the task, but they will grow in number until their impact spreads well beyond what anyone would have dreamed possible..
This is followed by the parable of the yeast. This parable made me realize a key factor about the role of Christians in society. The yeast used to make bread is a very small part of the ingredients. Yet, the yeast transforms the dough. If you mix all of the other ingredients together and leave out the yeast, the dough ball thus formed will remain static. On the other hand, when you add yeast, the dough ball becomes transformed and expands. This is the nature of Christians in society. If we live faithful lives we will transform society around us, changing it for the better all out of proportion to our numbers in that society.
Yesterday I talked about how Joseph remained faithful to God even in all of his troubles. Today’s account talks about when Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams. When Joseph told the Pharaoh the meaning of his dream he did not put himself forward at all. It was Pharaoh who thought that Joseph was a good choice to execute the plan which Joseph had outlined. When I read how Joseph presented the plan, I read an account of someone who was more concerned with the best interests of people than with accumulating power. We should strive to emulate Joseph AND seek leaders who emulate Joseph.
Joseph did not tell the Pharaoh, “Put me in charge to make this plan work.” Rather Joseph said, “Find an intelligent and wise man and put him in charge.” It is hard for me to imagine that Joseph did not think he was the best man for the job, but rather than put himself forward, he put the plan forward. If it took someone else being put in charge to get the plan implemented, Joseph was OK with that.