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.
In Jeremiah’s time, many people worshiped gods they had crafted with their own hands from precious materials. Today, many people just worship the precious materials. Yet with that being said, there are more and more people who are choosing to worship gods made with human hands. As our society has chosen to reject Christianity and to call it a silly superstition, an ever growing number are choosing to practice religions that are based on practices that were abandoned when Christianity was first preached in the lands where those practices originated. These people reject worshiping the God who made the heavens and the earth because that “would be silly.” Yet they turn to worshiping gods that they openly acknowledge are not real.
Our lives are not our own, the course we follow is that laid out for us by God. Like Jeremiah, I pray that God will correct me when I do wrong. I pray for gentle correction because I do not have the strength to survive God’s anger. God poured out His anger on the people of Judah because they broke the covenant they had made with Him to obey Him and follow His word. Today God has offered a new covenant to us. One in which His Spirit will reside within us and transform us into His image. How much harsher will we be judged if we break this covenant?
Paul writes here several of his directions for both sides of a relationship. Wives are to submit to their husbands and husbands are to love their wives. He does not spell it out here, but in Ephesians he said that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. Christ laid down His life for the Church. In the same way, husbands should sacrifice their own self-interest in order to do what is best for their wives. Children should obey their parents and parents should avoid aggravating their children. Slaves should obey their masters and work to please them. They should behave as if the work they do for their masters is being done for the Lord. Masters treat their slaves in the knowledge that they themselves have a Master in heaven. I think that Paul’s instructions for masters and slaves can be equally applied to workers and employers.
We should devote ourselves to prayer, keeping an alert mind and a thankful heart. We should live wisely among the unbelievers and make the most of every opportunity to witness to them. We are to keep our conversation gracious so that we will have the right response for every occasion. I think this, in part, refers back to the verses from yesterday where Paul told us to get rid of anger, rage, slander and foul language. Let us carry out the ministry that God has given us and encourage our brothers and sisters in the Lord to do the same.
The psalmist continues to tell us how the people of Israel turned away from God despite the many wonderful things He did for them. God brought His judgement on them by turning them over to their enemies. But then He chose once again to express His love for them and He raised up a Shepherd to tend them with a true heart and skillful hands.
We should not testify against our neighbor if they have not done wrong. We should not lie about them. We should not strive to make our neighbors pay for perceived (or real) slights against us by getting them punished for crimes they did not commit.