I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. 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.
Today’s passage tells us of a man named Micah whose mother made an idol for him. He set the idol up in his house and worshiped it. One day a young Levite who was traveling looking for a new place to live came through the area. Micah hired him to be his priest. Some time after this a group of five men from the tribe of Dan were scouting out land for the tribe to claim as its own (the tribe had not yet claimed the land assigned to it by God through Joshua). They spent the night at Micah’s house. They recognized that the Levite by his accent and asked what he was doing there. He told them of Micah’s idol and that Micah had hired him to be his priest. The five men asked the Levite for God’s blessing on their journey and the Levite told them God would be with them. The five men of Dan found a likely town for their tribe to conquer and returned to report.
The tribe of Dan sent 600 warriors to conquer the town which the scouts had found. When they passed near Micah’s house the five scouts went in and stole Micah’s idol and the other items in his household temple. When the Levite confronted them, they convinced him that becoming the priest for the entire tribe of Dan was better than being priest for a single household. After the men from the tribe of Dan had moved on some distance, Micah and his neighbors came chasing after them. The men of Dan asked Micah why he had chased after them and Micah replied by accusing them of stealing his household idols and his priest. The men of Dan threatened Micah and continued on their way. When Micah realized that there were too many of them for his group of neighbors to defeat, he left them alone and returned home.
This story contains several sad elements. First we have Micah turning to idol worship and successfully recruiting a Levite to give it a veneer of respectability. Then we have the tribe of Dan stealing from their fellow Israelite and when confronted over their theft threatening to kill the man and his family. Basically, they behave as a bunch of thugs. Finally, we have the entire tribe of Dan adopt idolatry.
Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council, came to see Jesus one night. I have heard it said that Nicodemus came at night so as to avoid anyone knowing he came to see Jesus. However, I think there is another possible explanation. During the day, there would have been crowds around Jesus and it would have been impossible to have a quiet, personal conversation with Him about spiritual matters. I think that Nicodemus came at night so that he could have a more in depth conversation than was possible during the day.
Nicodemus started by acknowledging that Jesus was clearly sent by God. Jesus responds to this by telling him that in order to see the Kingdom of God one must be born again. I had never seen this before, but I believe that in his first question, Nicodemus is asking if Jesus is talking about some kind of reincarnation. Jesus’ reply is that He is not talking about a physical rebirth, but about a spiritual rebirth. He tells Nicodemus that just as the wind blows where it wills but cannot be seen and there is no way to really know where it came from, so it is with the Holy Spirit. We cannot tell how the Holy Spirit will move in people, nor can we tell who it will move in. We cannot predict how the Holy Spirit will move so as to bring someone to a new life in Christ.
When Nicodemus expressed confusion about this concept Jesus questioned how it could be so hard for such a prominent teacher to understand this concept. Jesus goes on to suggest that if Nicodemus cannot get his head around this basic concept, how will he understand more elevated thinking (this is a direct comment on Nicodemus’ hubris in coming to Jesus apart from the crowds for “special” teaching). Jesus goes on to say that the “Son of Man” must be lifted up so that everyone who believed in Him could have eternal life (once more the author presents the idea that Jesus preached of His death and resurrection from very early in His ministry).
The author then gives us that classic summation of Christian theology, John 3:16. John goes on to tell us that Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but rather to save it. Once more he returns to using the metaphor of light to refer to Jesus (a metaphor I really like). John tells us that those who choose to do evil avoid the light because the light will reveal their sins for what they are, for everyone to see. On the other hand those who are striving to do right get as close to the light as possible in order that everyone can see that they have done right. I think there is another reason that those who are striving to do right attempt to move close to the light. That reason is that they want the things they do wrong to be apparent so that they can be confronted and change their ways. When you are trying to fix something, in order to see all the fine details that need to be corrected you need a very good source of light.
Another psalm of praise. “Let all that I am praise the Lord.” A reminder once more to make God the focus of my thoughts. Overall the psalm tells us how great God is and all the reasons we should praise Him. I will encourage you once more to read the psalm for yourself and meditate upon it. I will end my thoughts with this quote from the psalm about God’s greatness:
flames of fire are your servants.
These two proverbs come together with an important message for us. The first tell us that no one wants to be friends with the poor and everyone wants to be the friend of the rich. The second one tells us that we should not fall into this trap. That it is a sin to belittle one’s neighbor and that those who help the poor will be blessed by God. Let me never forget that God loves even those whom man despises.