For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I will be out of town on business for most of this week. It is my plan to complete this blog every day, but I may run late some days.
The proverb writer tells us that gracious words are pure in God’s sight. This results from the fact that in order to speak graciously we must select pure words.
The psalmist tells us to give thanks to the Lord. I will do so, for much the same reason that the psalmist did. When I look at my life, I completely agree with what the psalmist says in verses 5-7. When I was in distress I cried to the Lord and He delivered me. Most important, since I know that God is with me, I will not fear anything that may come. God will see me through to the other side. I do not fear pain, or suffering, or death because God is with me. Remember, if God is with us, why should we fear what mere mortals can do? They have no power to do anything which is not according to His will.
I have long struggled with how Jesus’ reply to Judas Iscariot applies to us today. Jesus is no longer physically among us for us to do something similar to what Mary did here. There are two aspects of the lesson for us. The first part is that giving to the poor is not the only way to give assets to God’s service. The second part is that we should, from time to time, do things which tell others how much we appreciate what they have done in their life. There are times when we are called to show someone who has been doing the Lord’s work that they are appreciated and loved.
In yesterday’s passage, David had marched to war against Saul with the Philistine king who had sheltered him from Saul. There is no evidence that David was reluctant to do so, even though up until now he had avoided attacking his fellow Israelites (and had rejected the idea of killing Saul on those several occasions when he had the opportunity). Today we discover the hand of God at work. The other Philistine commanders were afraid to have David and his men in their order of battle. They were afraid that in the midst of the battle David would switch sides back to Saul. As a result they demanded that the king of Gath send David away from the coming battle. As a result, David did not take part in the battle which led to Saul’s death. No one could accuse David of contributing to the death of King Saul.
There was a second way in which this worked to David’s benefit. When he and his men returned to the town where they had settled, they discovered that it had been raided and their families taken captive. If they had stayed with the Philistine army, their families would have been long gone by the time they returned. As a result of their early return they were able to pursue the raiders and rescue their families. It is good to see how the hand of God so often protects us in more ways than one.