For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
The middle proverb is the one which speaks to me today. I especially like the translators notes that come with the New Living Translation. There they tell us that an alternate translation for the phrase, ” a wise person wins friends” is “those who win souls are wise.” When I put that together with the first phrase of the verse, “The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life,” it really says a lot about how God wishes us to live. One could read this as “The seeds of good deeds bring life to those who practice them.” That would not be wrong. But in the context I think the seeds become a tree of life which wins souls. It is nice for my good deeds to become a tree of life for me, but God is calling us to use our good deeds to plant a tree of life for others, and thereby to win souls for Him.
I am not quite sure what to say about this psalm. Certainly I will praise God as it instructs and tell everyone about His power. Those who choose to be God’s enemies will face destruction. Those who serve Him and praise Him will rejoice.
When John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, or if they should be looking for someone else, Jesus told them to tell John what they had seen and heard. And what did they see? The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. This is the model of what the Church should look like. If we are not seeing the same things in the Church today, we need to ask God why. Perhaps the reason we do not see these things is because we are looking for someone else. Perhaps we are not truly worshiping the Jesus described in the Gospels.
The example of Jesus and John show us that there is not one right way to serve God. John was an ascetic, Jesus was most definitely not (as a matter of fact, here He tells us that He was accused of being a hedonist). While this was not the point Jesus was making here, it shows that God calls different people to different lifestyles (although not in the way in which this world uses that term to describe sexual behavior).
One of the things I have heard taught many different times about making sermons, speeches, and writing is that you should have three points. As a result, I am bothered by the fact that so often when I am working on these Bible studies that I find myself wanting to make two points. Nevertheless, there were two points which struck me about this passage.
In this passage Moses said that God did not make a covenant with their ancestors, rather He made it with those who were alive and listening to him. That is how the covenant which God sealed by Jesus’ death on the cross is. It is not a covenant made with our ancestors. It is a covenant which God has made with each and every one of us. God will speak with each and every one of us face to face. The key here is that God has made a personal commitment to each and every one of us. This is not a covenant made with a “people”. It is a covenant made with individuals, a covenant which turns those individuals into a people.
The second point is that it is not enough to obey God’s commands grudgingly…it is not even worthwhile to obey His commands if we do so grudgingly. No we are called to obey His commands with enthusiasm. We are called to commit ourselves with all of our being to obeying and worshiping God. I will love God with all of my heart, all of my soul, and all of my strength. Anything less is a waste of time.