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. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
The tribes of Reuben and Gad requested of Moses that they be allowed to settle the lands which the Israelites had conquered east of the Jordan River. They had large flocks and these lands were ideally suited to grazing their flocks. They agreed to send their fighting men to accompany the rest of Israel to conquer the land west of the Jordan. Moses told them that if they failed to carry out their promise to help their fellow Israelites they would be punished.
The passage then gives a summary of the Israelites journey through the wilderness. listing each of the places they camped from when they left Egypt until they reached Mt Hor, where Aaron died (tomorrow’s passage begins with the final stages of the journey through the wilderness).
After being rejected in Nazareth (in yesterday’s passage, although I did not touch on it in my blog), Jesus went to Capernaum and taught in the synagogue every Sabbath. The people were amazed by His teaching. Once while He was in the synagogue a demon possessed man began shouting at Him to leave him alone. Jesus commanded the demon to come out of the man. The demon threw the man to the ground and came out of him. The people talked about how evil spirits fled at His command and spread the word about Him.
When Jesus left the synagogue that day, He went to Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law (the actual Greek is “Simon’s wife’s mother”) was sick. They asked Jesus to heal her. He did so and she got up and took up the role of hostess. People from all over the town brought those who had any sort of sickness to Jesus and He healed them. This included some who were demon-possessed. The demons caused the people to shout, “You are the Son of God.” Jesus rebuked them and would not allow them to speak any more than that.
One day when Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee the people began to crowd close to Him to listen to what He had to say. He saw the boats of fisherman who were washing their nets. He got into the one belonging to Simon and asked Simon to put out a little from shore. Jesus then sat in the boat and preached to the crowd. When He finished speaking, He told Simon to put out into deep water and put down the nets. Simon replied that they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing, but he would do as Jesus asked. When Simon had let down the nets, they filled up with so many fish that they began to break. He immediately called for help from the other boat. Between them they managed to pull in the nets, but there were so many fish that the boats began to sink. Simon fell at Jesus’ feet and asked Him to leave him because he was too sinful to associate with such as Jesus. Jesus told Simon not to be afraid, that from that time forward he would be fishing for people. Simon and his partners, James and John, pulled their boats up on the shore and left everything to follow Jesus.
The accounts of the reactions of the demon-possessed to Jesus reminds me of several interviews I have seen with Penn Jillette (not that I am implying that he is demon-possessed) about Christianity. Several years ago he spoke about how if you believe that people are going to Hell if they don’t believe the Christian message, how can you possibly not proselytize? How can you fail to tell people the Gospel if you truly believe it? Recently, I saw him do a great defense of the Pope and the teaching of the Catholic Church where he explained the logic of the Catholic Church and defended the Catholic Church against an attack from Piers Morgan, who claims to be Catholic. I am not Catholic, but Penn’s argument can apply to other parts of the Christian Church with minor modification. We as Christians need to spend some time paying attention to the internal logic of what we believe.
The psalmist tells us that the wicked plot and plan. They conspire together to take advantage of the innocent. They are convinced that they are clever and no one will figure out that they are behind the evil they cause. They would be correct, except for the one thing (or perhaps I should say One Thing) they leave out of their calculations: God. The conspiracies of the wicked will fail do to unforeseeable events. Their plots and plans will be revealed, no matter how thoroughly they have covered their tracks. All people will see what happens and know that it is the work of God. People will proclaim the works of God in defeating the plots of the wicked and the righteous will rejoice.
Here is a proverb that many in our society could learn from. A beautiful woman who has not learned to act with discretion is no more appealing than a pig with a gold ring in its nose.