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. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.

     Today’s passage is a series of miscellaneous laws for the Israelites to follow as they live in the land that God promised them. Laws against charging interest on loans and regulating what can be taken as security against a loan. Laws against taking advantage of poor and destitute laborers. Laws about marriage and divorce. Laws against prostitution. Laws requiring that justice be given to foreigners living among them and to orphans. Laws requiring honest scales and accurate measures. All in all a list of laws designed to build a just and honest society. Some of them seem a bit strange, but most of them make sense when you understand the nature of the culture among which the Israelites lived.

     Today Jesus finishes commissioning the seventy-two disciples He sent out to preach. He condemns three cities in which He preached for their lack of receptiveness to His message. Jesus tells the seventy-two (and us, I believe) that anyone who listens to them, listens to Him and anyone who rejects them, rejects Him. And anyone who rejects Him, rejects God. When the seventy-two returned they were excited because even evil spirits submitted to them in Jesus name. Jesus responds that He saw Satan fall from heaven and that He had given them authority over all the power of the enemy. However, they should not rejoice in their power, but in the fact that their names are written in heaven. Jesus then prayed a prayer of thanksgiving. He thanked God for concealing His plans from those the world thinks wise and clever, from those who think they have it all figured out, and instead revealing it to those who had a childlike faith.
     I think there are some important things to pay attention to in this passage. The first is that when it comes to spiritual warfare against the powers of Satan, Jesus has given us authority over Satan and those spirits which serve him. We do not have power over them in our own right, but we have the authority to command them in the name of Jesus. There is nothing complicated about it or requiring special knowledge. All that is required is faith in Jesus and in God. Those spirits will attempt to threaten us and intimidate us, but all we need to do is ignore their threats and call upon the name of Jesus and they have no power over us, nor any ability to enter into our lives. Another important point in this passage is that we should not get caught up in thinking ourselves wise and clever. God works through the simple-minded and those with childlike faith. Whenever I think about this I think about the man born blind whom Jesus healed. When the wise religious leaders belittled him for his faith in Jesus he replied, “I don’t know whether he is a sinner. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!” I know this, I was blind and now I can see. That will ever be my response to those who tell me that they are too clever to believe in Jesus. There is one other point I want to make. Whenever I start to think that I am wise or clever, I remember this passage and what Jesus says about God’s plan being concealed from those who think they are wise and clever. Then I begin to wonder if I really want to be wise and clever or if I would rather see what God’s plan for me is?
     Luke then tells us of the religious expert who one day asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied by asking him how he interpreted the law of Moses on this. The man replied that it said he must love the Lord God with all of his being and his neighbor as himself. To which Jesus said, “Exactly, do that and you will live.” The man then asked Jesus, “But who is my neighbor?” The man was looking for the limits on who he had to love as himself. Jesus then told the story of the good Samaritan. In the story a priest and a religious acolyte passed the injured man by without helping, but a Samaritan, a member of a group that was noted by the Jews of the day for failing to live up to the law, went out of his way to help the man. With this story, Jesus told us it was more important to care for those in need then it was to be counted by society as among the righteous.

     Yesterday’s psalm called on God to rise up against those who have chosen to be His enemies and oppress those who serve Him. Today’s psalm tells us that God will do so at the time that He has planned. It is God who judges. God lifts up one for honor and brings another low in humiliation. He has prepared a cup of judgment which He will force the wicked to drink to its very dregs. I will praise the name of the Lord because He will bring judgment against those who do evil by bringing harm to those over whom they have power.

     The proverb tells us that thieves are desirous of obtaining the wealth of other thieves while the godly strive to acquire their own wealth through their own hard work. This tells us a lot about both ourselves and others. Do we expect to meet our needs and desires through our own hard work or do we expect to do so through goods that others have produced?
     The wicked are trapped by the lies that they tell while the righteous never need to worry about what they said, since they told the truth. Speaking wisdom brings many benefits and hard work brings about reward.