Monthly Archives: July 2017

Daily Bible Study

July 22, 2017 Bible Study — God Is Calling For Prophets

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 5-8.

    The first thing which struck me in this passage was a series of “What sorrow for…” statements it contains. The first one addresses those who buy up land and make it inaccessible to anyone else. This reads to me as a condemnation of those who use their wealth to put up barriers to keep others from acquiring wealth. The second one addresses those who fill their time completely with entertainment and parties, people who are too busy having a good time to have time to care for others. The third one addresses those who “drag their sins behind them.” I am not quite sure what the prophet is getting at here. Perhaps he is referring to those who brag about their sins and wickedness. Or perhaps he is talking about those who use their past to justify their present failure to care for others. The fourth one, and the final one I will pull out specifically, addresses those who say that doing evil is doing good and that doing good is doing evil. For me this ties all of them together and gives me an idea about how they apply. I see this all around us, people who say that certain self-indulgent behaviors that since time immemorial have been seen as wrong and harmful are good and that those who warn against those behaviors are evil. If I warn that such behaviors will have negative consequences for those who practice them I am “intolerant” and a “hatemonger”.

    Into that world, God called Isaiah to prophesy. Perhaps he is calling another Isaiah today into a very similar world. Or perhaps God is calling a whole series of prophets. After all, Isaiah was not the only prophet in Israel when he prophesied. It is worth looking at Isaiah’s calling. When Isaiah saw God, he was horrified because he knew that he was too impure, too sinful, to be in the presence of our Holy God. In response God sent to him an angel to purify him of his sins. In the same way, God sent Jesus to purify us of our sins. The symbolism of how Isaiah was purified is significant. A hot coal was pressed against his lips, burning the sinful words which he had spoken from his mouth. Once Isaiah was purified he heard God asking whom He could send as a messenger to His people. Isaiah did not hesitate. Immediately he responded, “Here I am. Send me.” I have often wondered if Isaiah said that in a quiet, slightly reluctant whisper, “Here I am. Send me.” Or did he shout, “Here I am. Send me!“ 

    In either case, God is once more asking for people who are willing to take His message to the people. Make no mistake, this is a thankless task, because the message is not one that will be welcome. The message is that people will listen, but not understand. They will see what God is doing, but not learn what He wants them to do. They will refuse to turn to God for healing. We see a little further down that people will contradict God’s teaching and then blame God and those who do obey Him when the inevitable disaster strikes.

Daily Bible Study

July 21, 2017 Bible Study — It Is Not Our Leaders’ Fault. It Is Our Fault.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 1-4.

    I am hesitant to apply passages which were addressed to the ancient nation of Israel to any nation or people today. However, there are ways in which this applies to people throughout history. Modern western civilization is built upon principles of justice and truth. These principles derive from God’s word. I want to pause here and note that this idea has been misused time and again to violate those very principles. This very passage lays out what those principles are:

Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows.

Or to quote something which I consider to be another way of stating this:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

There is a third quote which I want to include which I believe is another way of expressing part of this basic truth:

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.

The man responsible for that second quote fell well short of living up to that ideal. If we do not follow the path laid out in that first quote than all of our attempts at righteous living are meaningless and serve no purpose except to anger God (and our fellow man). At no point does this passage, or God Himself, tell us to demand that the government do these things. God expects each and every one of us to seek justice, to help the oppressed, to defend the cause of the orphan, and fight for the rights of the widow.

    If we allow our wealth to become our god, God will allow us to suffer the results of our folly. I believe in many ways we are seeing this in our society today. Our leaders behave like children and the common people strive to oppress their fellows. All too often we as a people strive to address this by seeking new leaders, but until we address the core issue the new leaders will be worse than those they replace. We must, each one of us for ourselves, obey God and seek His will. He has promised us that, despite the fact that our sins are red as crimson, He will make us pure if we seek to do His will. Our nation, our society will not be restored by having the right leaders. It will be restored by justice, and any of its people will be revived by righteousness if they repent of their sins. That means even you and me. We must genuinely regret our sins and stop committing them. Not just our sins of commission, but our sins of omission as well. Once more, I want to emphasize that we cannot place the blame for the ills of our society on our leaders, although they do indeed share in that blame. And we must not look to them, or their replacements to fix it. Each and every one of us must do, not just our part, but everything within our power to change things, not by changing the laws of the land, but by asking God to change our hearts and setting an example for others to follow.

Daily Bible Study

July 20, 2017 Bible Study — Human Sexuality Is Blessed By God

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Song of Solomon 1-8.

    The Song of Solomon is a study in appropriate sexual behavior. One of the recurring phrases throughout this passage is variations on this:

Promise me, O women of Jerusalem,
not to awaken love until the time is right.

This phrase has two meanings and is equally applicable to young men as to young women. The first meaning is that a young person should not become sexually active, or even sexualized, until they have reached an appropriate age. I am not going to try to define what they age is because it will be different for different people living in different cultures (although, it is certainly not until well after puberty). The second meaning is that a young person should not become sexually active until they have found the right person. I do not believe that there is only one possible right person for each of us, although it may be a good idea to take that approach while you are looking.

    In addition to the above phrase there are other thoughts and phrases throughout the Song of Solomon which give us glimpses into God’s intentions for human sexuality. There are numerous places where the passage encourages us to have only one sexual partner. The two lovers express a strong sexual desire for each other. They describe each other in glowing terms which reveal their attraction and their love for each other. It also reveals their commitment to each other. For those who are married, the way the lovers describe each other should encompass the way you feel about the person to whom you are married. I know that it does for me.

Daily Bible Study

July 19, 2017 Bible Study — Moderation In Everything, Even Doing Good

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ecclesiastes 7-12.

    The writer advises us to do everything in moderation, we should even be moderate in being good and being wise. I am not sure that he truly means that it is possible to be too good, or too wise. My understanding of what he means here is colored by the fact that later in this passage he encourages us to enjoy ourselves. There comes a point where our desire to do the good thing, or the wise thing (or both), becomes so intense that it saps all joy from our lives. At that point we have taken those things too far. On the other hand there are other activities which will weaken us, or shorten our lives. Things which, while perhaps enjoyable, when taken to excess give us pain and suffering in the long run. We should be moderate in those activities as well. God intends for us to enjoy our lives, even though they involve struggle and effort. Another point the writer makes, which goes along with the theme of moderation in everything, is that we should diversify our efforts to supply our needs. Do not work at just one thing, find multiple ways to earn your keep.

Daily Bible Study

July 18, 2017 Bible Study — Life Is Meaningless…Or, Is It?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ecclesiastes 1-6.

    This passage reminds me very much of my faith story. I grew up in a Christian home and had an understanding of the Gospel from a young age. I was also taught to use my mind and think about things critically. From the time I could reach my own conclusions about faith issues I was torn between the faith which my parents had told me and a desire for proof of God’s existence. After I graduated from college and while I was still in my early 20s, this struggle became severe. As I thought more about my life and spent even more time looking for intellectual proof of God’s existence more and more I asked myself what was the point of living. Life was hard work and what was the point? I even considered suicide at one point, not out of depression, but merely as an easy way out. If there is no God, life is meaningless. Which led me to the conclusion that I could not live life believing that this universe was all that there was. I realized I had a choice: I could live life depressed, or I could choose to live my life as if the Bible was true. I chose the latter. Amazingly within months, I had the proof I had been looking for all my life. I know that God exists. I learned that Psalms 34:8 tells us the only way we can truly know God. The only way to know God is to experience Him for yourself. I learned to know God by choosing to act as if I believed in Him, by doing the things which followed from knowing that there is a God.

Daily Bible Study

July 17, 2017 Bible Study — Good People Despise Those Who Treat Others Poorly, Wicked People Despise Those Who Do Good

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Proverbs 29-31.

    The beginning of today’s passage is more of the short unconnected wise sayings. If you are looking for “fortune cookie” wise sayings, this would be a good source for them. I am going to focus on the last of these because I think it is easy to miss the point it makes.

The righteous despise the unjust;
the wicked despise the godly.

If you just read it casually it might seem to be saying, “Good people don’t like bad people and bad people do not like good people.” However, if you do read it closely you realize that it is saying that the righteous despise the absence of justice, while the wicked despise those who do not do wrong. The righteous despise those who mistreat others because they care about people. The wicked despise those whose actions are blameless because it highlights their own wickedness.

    The Book of Proverbs ends with the sayings of Agur. We do not know anything about Agur other than what is mentioned here and many have speculated on the meaning of the introduction to this section. However, the part I am going to focus on is the request the writer makes of God. Those requests are ones which we all should make. First, we should ask God to help us to never tell a lie. The fact of the matter is that no matter how well-intentioned we are, without God’s help we will tell lies time and again. They may be outright lies, or lies of omission, but they will be lies nonetheless. The second part of his request is more interesting. He requests that God give him just enough to satisfy his needs, not so much that he is wealthy and not so little that he is in poverty. That si my desire as well. If we become wealthy we may begin to think that we do not need God. On the other hand, if we are impoverished we may commit sin in order to have enough to eat.

Daily Bible Study

July 16, 2017 Bible Study — Choose To Do The Right Thing, Not To LOOK Like You Are Doing the Right Thing

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Proverbs 25-28.

    Today we are back to one or two sentence wise sayings. As is the case with most of this book they are of varying utility (all of some value, but a few less valuable then others). I am struggling with what to write about this because so many of these proverbs stand alone and do not really have a theme tying them together (except that they contrast the behaviors of a wise person and a foolish person). However, I am going to start with a theme which turns up repeatedly in the Book of Proverbs, and elsewhere in the Bible: Do not seek honor or recognition from others. Or to put it another way, do not choose your actions so that other people will think you are a good person, or to be acknowledged by the “important people” (however you might define “important”). Instead, do things because they are the right thing to do. Now it is important to note that there are times when we should do things that are neither right or wrong so that people will not think we are bad people. I have never found a way to explain the distinction between doing things so that people will not think badly of me and doing things to make myself look good. The only way I can explain the difference is that the first is designed to keep people from misjudging me (to my detriment) based on their prejudices while the second is designed to encourage people to misjudge me (to my advantage) based on their prejudices.

    I was going to spend a little time talking about how the writer includes multiple sayings which talk about how the fortunes of a nation are tied to the morality of its people and its leaders (and how those two are tied together), but then I came to Proverbs 25:21-22. (See how I got that bit about society and morality in there anyway).

If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat.
If they are thirsty, give them water to drink.
You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads,
and the Lord will reward you.

The point here is to always take the high road because by doing so sometimes we can convert an enemy into a friend. And even if we cannot, God will reward us for showing His love to our fellow man. However, just a few verses later the writer reminds us that there is a limit to what constitutes the “high road.”

If the godly give in to the wicked,
it’s like polluting a fountain or muddying a spring.

In taking the high road versus our enemies it is important not to enable the wicked actions of the wicked.

Daily Bible Study

July 15, 2017 Bible Study — Not Knowing Is Not An Excuse For Not Doing What Is Right

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Proverbs 22-24.

    Chapter 22 concludes the section of short one or two sentence sayings of wisdom. I will highlight a few of these that represent important points (although most of them make good points we should take to heart). One of the points which the writer makes is that no matter who we are, rich or poor, we were created by God, in His image. No person is more valuable than another and each and everyone of us was made in God’s image, according to His intention. If we understand this we will naturally understand that practicing injustice can only lead to disaster. Those who commit injustices against others will, in due time, suffer themselves. On the other hand, those who are generous and provide for those in need will be blessed beyond measure. When we remember that we are all equally God’s creatures, most of the rest of the wisdom contained in this Book follow.

    In the next section the writer fleshes out the wise advice with a little more explanation of their meaning. Once again the writer emphasizes a few points by coming back to them and addressing them in different ways. He warns against gluttony, drinking too much alcohol, and greed. He points out the ways in which such things will result in unhappiness. There are three points I want to look at more closely. The writer advises us that we will start to imitate the behaviors of those we spend our time with. If we spend our time with people who readily lose their temper, we will increasingly find it hard to control our temper. If we spend our time with those who do wrong, we will find ourselves justifying doing wrong ourselves. On the other hand, if we spend our time with the godly, we will behave in a more godly manner. Closely related to that is his warning against envying those who do wrong. IF we begin to wish that we had the things they have or lived their life, we will find ourselves imitating their worst behaviors to our detriment. What they have may seem appealing, but the price is more than it seems. The writer warns us against taking advantage of others, particularly the poor and powerless. God will act as their defender and hold us accountable for their loss. Finally the author tells us an important point (I know I said there were three points and this is a fourth…deal with it). God will not excuse us for looking the other way while evil is being performed. All too often, we choose to look the other way and no know when something evil is happening so that we will not have to stand up against it. God will not let us off that easily. Saying “I didn’t know” is not good enough when we should have known. If the reason we did not know that evil was going on was because we did not want to know, God will repay us for our failure to act.

Daily Bible Study

July 14, 2017 Bible Study — Words Matter

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Proverbs 18-21.

    Today’s passage is a continuation of the series of one or two sentence sayings of wisdom. I had a friend who commented on Facebook that he despised certain parts of Proverbs because they blame the poor and the sick for their condition. I know the proverbs to which he was referring, but I believe that reading them as blaming the poor, or the sick, for their condition is a misreading of their intent. While there are many proverbs in this book which talk about how if you do “x” or “y” you will end up poor, or sick in other cases, there are also many, such as Proverbs 21:13, which instruct us to care for the poor and the sick. Based on that fact, that the proverbs which say that poverty results from certain actions and sickness from others are interspersed with proverbs condemning those who fail to care for the poor and the sick, I am convinced that the former are warnings about behaviors which will inevitably lead one to poverty or sickness. One of my favorite authors had one of her characters say, “Actions have consequences. So, if you desire a particular consequence, choose the actions which have that consequence.” I believe that the writer(s) of Proverbs would heartily agree with that statement and included references to consequences which are to be avoided even more fervently than poverty. That is, it seems to me that the writer tells us that sometimes the actions which will lead us to wealth include consequences which are less desirable than poverty. Sometimes the poor, and the sick, are where they are because they have chosen not to take such actions.

    There are many snippets of wisdom in this passage which stand alone and I cannot cover them all. One example is Proverbs 18:10

The name of the Lord is a strong fortress;
the godly run to him and are safe.

Many of them deserve full blog entries on their own (and perhaps one year, I will pick one or two such and make that my post for the day). But one theme which runs through many of these is the importance words, both for good and for evil. If you take them all together you learn that you should be careful to speak words which are beneficial, and avoid listening to those who spend their time saying things which are not. You learn that you should think before you speak, do not become enamored of the sound of your own voice. Being a person of few words will bring greater rewards than talking all of the time.

Daily Bible Study

July 13, 2017 Bible Study — Choose Your Addiction Carefully

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Proverbs 14-17.

    Today’s passage is composed of a large number of one or two sentence words of wisdom, most of which seem obvious but which say more than they seem to. A good example of this is Proverbs 14:5

An honest witness does not lie;
a false witness breathes lies.

Those two parts are self-evident. “An honest witness does not lie.” Well, of course, that is what it means to be an honest witness. “A false witness breathes lies.” Again, that is the definition of a false witness. However, when you look at these two together you realize that the writer is telling you something more than that. If someone lies to you, they will probably always lie to you on important matters. While someone who tells you the truth will probably always tell you the truth. There is even one step further than that. Every time you tell the truth, especially when it hurts you to do so, it becomes easier to tell the truth and harder to lie. And every time you tell a lie, especially one which gains you advantage, the harder it is to tell the truth and the easier it is to lie. Telling the truth and telling lies both become addictive. You need to decide to which you would rather be addicted.

    In many ways the idea of choosing to what behaviors we will become addicted is carried throughout many of the proverbs here. The more we choose to do what is right, just, and wise, the more we will do what is right, just, and wise without thinking about it. The more we choose to do the opposite, the more we will do the opposite without giving it a conscious thought. The other thought, closely related to the first, which permeates these wise sayings is that: if you want to be wise, spend time with the wise; if you want to be righteous, spend time with the righteous. On the other hand, if you spend your time with the foolish, you will soon be foolish and if you spend time with the wicked, you will find yourself doing evil.