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.
This passage tells us that David, with the assistance of the political leaders of Israel and the leaders of the clans of the Levites divided the priestly families into groups. They then divided the various priestly duties among the family groups by casting lots, so that no favoritism would be shown. Then they did the same thing with the rest of the tribe of Levi, dividing the Levitical duties in the same manner. Then we are told that David and the army commanders chose certain men to proclaim God’s messages to musical accompaniment. Finally we are told the divisions of gatekeepers. What is important about this passage is that a strong effort was made to ensure that the duties relating to worshiping God were divided up in a manner that was fair and impartial. The effort was made to ensure that one group of priests could not say, “We are better than you, that is why we were assigned this task.” Nor could a group say, “You were only assigned that task because David (or some other powerful figure) likes you better.” This tells us something for how we structure our congregations today. The way that church offices are filled must not only be fair and equitable, they must be perceived to be fair and equitable.
Paul turned to Abraham, the founder of Judaism. Paul pointed out that Abraham was not counted as right with God because of his good deeds. Instead the Bible tells us that Abraham was counted as righteous because of his faith in God. Or as the NIV translates it, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Once he established that Abraham’s righteousness was not a product of his actions, Paul proceeds to discuss whether circumcision is a necessary precondition. He points out that Abraham was credited as righteous before he was circumcised, that circumcision was a sign that Abraham had faith, not a precondition to that faith (and the righteousness that came from it). Paul concludes that Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have not been circumcised but have faith. That, just as with Abraham, their faith will be credited to them as righteousness. Paul further says that Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same faith that he, Abraham, had before he was circumcised. Abraham had a faith that led him to take action. If we have a similar faith, we will also take action. That action does not save us, our faith saves us, but that faith will lead us to act.
The psalmist cries out here to God, wanting to know how long he must wait for God’s providence. He wants to know how much longer will he suffer until God saves him from his trouble. But then he does something that is a model for us all. He declares that he trusts in God’s love, that he will rejoice because God has rescued him. He does this even before God rescues him because he has faith that God will indeed rescue him. This is a difficult thing to do, to praise God for rescuing us from trouble, even before we see that rescue. We should remember to sing to the Lord because he has been good to us, even in our times of trouble.
Proverbs on laziness always trouble me, because I tend to be lazy. On the other hand, I have always worked hard enough to feed myself, so perhaps my definition of lazy is different from that of the writer of the proverb. The second of today’s proverbs reminds me of something that I have long said. God’s commands are not arbitrary. They are based on the way he designed us and this world to work. If we do not follow God’s commands, we will suffer for it, not because God punishes us, but because we will not function in our optimum manner.