For today, One Year Bible Online links here. From time to time I have encouraged people to read their Bible through on this blog. However, this morning (yesterday for those reading this) in our worship service, I realized that I have never made an outright appeal encouraging people to attend a local church (except occasionally when a particular passage leads there). So, I am going to so here today. Here is the link for the website of the congregation I attend. If you are in the area on a Sunday, please stop by and visit. If you live in the area and do not attend a congregation on a regular basis, I beg of you to start, whether at mine or another.
Parents should discipline their children for the good of the children. Lovingly administered corporal punishment will not harm the child and some lessons require physical punishment to truly hit home. Failure to learn those lessons will lead to your child’s death.
The psalmist does not call on God to kill his enemies, because such lessons are too quickly forgotten. He calls on God to use the pride and words his enemies speak to bring them down. His enemies come out at night and prowl the streets. They use words as weapons, lying and slandering others. They are convinced that no one will hear them who can hold them to account for their lies. But God knows what they are saying and will use it against them. By contrast the psalmist rises in the morning to sing praises to God. Let us be like the psalmist and rise in the morning to praise God with joy, rather than skulking about in the dark, thinking that no one can see our evil deeds.
Even Paul found it necessary to test what he taught against the understanding of others. He went to Jerusalem and met with the leaders of the Church there. He explained the message he was preaching to the Gentiles in order to find out if they were in agreement. He had been told that he was wrong on the basic elements of the Gospel he preached, so he went to those held in high esteem by the Church. Note that he did not go to them because they were held in high esteem, but because he respected the work they had done for God.
Despite the respect with which Paul held Peter, one of those he went to for confirmation of the message he preached, he was willing to confront Peter when he felt that Peter was doing wrong. This is an important lesson, accountability goes both ways. We need to hold accountable those we allow to hold us to account. This is something that Church leaders need to remember, they are accountable to those they lead. If a member of the congregation confronts an elder for doing something wrong, the elder must address the congregants concern. If the elder was doing wrong, they must repent and change their behavior. If the elder was not doing wrong, they must show the congregant why their action was right. What the elder cannot do is dismiss the concern because the person who raised it was not a fellow elder (although I will admit that there are some believers who frequently bring up specious concerns and perhaps their concerns can be taken more lightly…at some point congregational leaders should work with such a person to show them that doing so is more of a sin than the “sins” they are guarding against).
As I read this passage I cannot help but think about current events and the recent past in Egypt. I am sure that anyone reading this remembers the recent fighting in Egypt and most are probably aware that the current government is dictatorial. However, what people may not know is that since the building of the Aswan Dam the Nile no longer floods the way it used to do. This may seem like a good thing, and for years was held up as such. However, as time has gone on, one of the results of this is that agricultural production in Egypt has fallen. The regular flooding by the Nile refreshed the fertility of the soil along the banks of the Nile.
Is what we are seeing in Egypt today a fulfillment of this prophecy? I do not know. I do know that the government of Egypt is starting to see its interests served by siding with Israel against Hamas. Is this perhaps a precursor to the next part of this prophecy, where it suggests that much of Egypt will come to worship God? Isaiah prophesied that the people would cry out to Him for relief from oppression and that He would make Himself known to them. Further he prophesied that some of the cities of Egypt would begin to speak Hebrew. This prophecy has such hope for the people of the Middle East. That someday the people of Egypt, Israel, and Assyria (most of modern-day Syria and Iraq) will unite together to serve the Lord.