Monthly Archives: July 2018

Daily Bible Study

July 22, 2018 Bible Study — Calling Evil “Good” and Good “Evil”

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.

    Isaiah warns against those who spend their efforts accumulating wealth at the expense of others and their time pursuing pleasure. They do these things without even thinking about God or noticing what He is doing in the world. When discussing the accumulation of wealth, Isaiah focuses on those who acquire more real estate than they can truly use, while leaving the poor with no place they can afford to live. The result is unproductive land, both because there is no one to work the land and because the environment breaks down. In the middle of oppressing the poor, these people mock God by asking why, if God is holy, He is not doing something for the poor?

    Isaiah warns us against those who say that evil is good and that good is evil. Those who insist on doing so will reap great sorrow. Today in our society we have many who claim that things long recognized as evil are actually good, and things long recognized as good are evil. Many of them compare this change to the change which recognized that slavery was evil. However, only a small number ever argued that slavery was good. The argument had been that it was not evil. In time, any society which insists on calling that which is evil good and that which is good evil will face destruction. Its own internal conflicts will tear it apart.

    One of the most inspiring stories in the Bible is Isaiah’s account of his calling by God. First, Isaiah recognized his complete unworthiness to be in the presence of God. He recognized his terrible guilt, a guilt which all of us share. But God cleansed him of his crime, of his sin, just as He offers to do for each and every one of us through Christ Jesus. Upon being cleansed of his sin, Isaiah heard God calling for someone to carry His message. I think we often miss that it was immediately upon being cleansed of his sin that Isaiah heard God’s call. This does not mean that we may not receive a call later, merely that when we experience God’s forgiveness, we immediately feel the desire to serve God. Isaiah was not cleansed of his sin because he faithfully conveyed God’s messages to His people. Isaiah faithfully conveyed God’s message because he was cleansed. We should be the same way.

    Isaiah told King Ahaz not to fear the alliance of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and Syria. While the kings of those two nations were plotting to conquer Judah, the Southern Kingdom, and had gathered their armies to that end, it would never happen. God was going to bring the Assyrian army to crush both of those nations. There are two aspects of Isaiah’s prophecy I have never noticed before and I have never heard anyone comment on. First, Isaiah condemns the people of Judah for rejoicing over the destruction of those kingdoms. We should never rejoice over the sufferings of others. And here is the thing which I find interesting. Isaiah prophesied that as a result of Judah’s rejoicing, Assyria would invade Judah, but not quite conquer it. Isaiah predicted that the Assyrian army would sweep into Judah and there would be nothing the people of Judah could do to resist it, but the flood of Assyrian conquest would recede before Judah fell.

Daily Bible Study

July 21, 2018 Bible Study — The Wicked Will Bring Judgement Upon Themselves

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.

    Isaiah starts off by calling the people of Jerusalem and Judah evil and corrupt. This was despite them offering the correct sacrifices and burnt offerings. IT was despite them keeping the rituals and ceremonies and festivals prescribed by God’s Laws. They had followed all of the superficial commands to the letter, but had failed to do that which God counted as important. They did not do good and seek justice. Isaiah’s condemnation is not unique to the people of ancient Judah. All too often we get caught up in the ceremonies and rituals of serving God and think that they cover over our mistreatment of our fellow man.

    The prophet offers both warning and hope. He warns that God’s judgement will pour our over those who continue to sin. Those who continue to worship idols, things that they themselves have made, will face suffering as God pours out His judgement. God will humble the proud and bring down the exalted. Those who seek to put themselves in God’s place will discover that they do not have the strength or wisdom to survive there. However, those who humble themselves and recognize God’s sovereignty will be raised up. God will wipe away the sins of those who seek to do His will. The wicked are doomed. Their own actions will lead to their destruction. Those who put their trust in human agency will suffer. But those who put their trust in God, those who beg His Spirit to make them behave in a godly fashion, will receive the reward they have earned.

Daily Bible Study

July 20, 2018 Bible Study — The Beauty of Sexual Love

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.

    I always struggle to find spiritual lessons in the Song of Solomon, but there are certainly lessons in it for us. Those lessons involve choosing a spouse. The Song of Solomon teaches us that we should not seek to marry until we find someone to whom we find ourselves irresistibly attracted. And yet, we should not give in to that attraction until the time is right. Build a relationship before allowing oneself to become sexually involved. Once you have met that person and formed a relationship with them, keep them to yourself. Your spouse should be your private garden. I know men who desire their wives to dress provocatively so as to attract the attention of other men so that they can show off their “manliness”. There are women who desire the same from their husbands. But the Song of Solomon advises, wisely, against such things. Better to keep the physical features which attracted you to your spouse a secret to be shared between just the two of you.
    I intended to write about how this passage inspires me to think of my wife and thank God for the desire He has given me for her (and her for me), but the words did not flow in that direction.

Daily Bible Study

July 19, 2018 Bible Study — Moderation In All Things

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

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

    The writer tells us that it is better to think about death than pleasure because, sooner or later, everyone dies. More importantly, we should not try too hard to be wise or good, but we should not be wicked or foolish either. No one can succeed in never sinning, so we should not try. That does not mean that we should not try not to sin, just not stress out over the fact that we have sinned. However, God created us to be virtuous, so we should not allow sin and temptation to carry us into wickedness. In a similar manner, striving to never do anything foolish will fail, so we should not strain ourselves striving to always do the wise thing. Anyone who thinks that they can always do what is right and wise is self-righteous and arrogant (and wrong). The point the writer is making here is that we all make mistakes. We should accept when we have and strive to do better in the future, but not spend time berating ourselves for our failure.

    The writer continues by telling us that we cannot ever fully learn God’s plans and actions. So, we should not wear ourselves out trying to figure out why one thing happened and another did not. While we are young we must be careful not to let the exuberance of youth cause us to forget God. We only have a short time on this earth, let us strive to do God’s will while we have the energy and strength to do so. And if we should live to a great age, let us rejoice in every day which God has given us.

Daily Bible Study

July 18, 2018 Bible Study — Meaning Comes From Pleasing 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 Ecclessiastes 1-6.

    In many ways I find this passage depressing. People think they have a new idea, but really it is just a recycling of something that went before. As an example, “cloud computing” is touted as a brand new idea, but it is just a return to the model from the early days of commercial computing. In the early days of computing, you paid someone else for time and space on their servers. Then PCs came along and people could afford to have their own computers. Now, we have “cloud computing”, where you pay someone else for time and space on their servers. Nothing is ever truly new. We have forgotten what went before and those who come after us will not remember what we have done.

    The writer tells us that he pursued wisdom and folly, hard work and pleasure, all to no avail. He discovered that all of these things were meaningless. From his efforts, he concluded that there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and gain satisfaction from work. Most importantly, he realizes that these pleasures come from God, who gives joy to those who please Him. While it is easy to miss, the writer tells us that the only meaning in this life comes from pleasing God.

    My favorite part of today’s passage is Chapter 3 verses 1-8. My wife and I printed this on bookmarks and gave them out as favors at our wedding. We need to recognize that there is a time to celebrate and a time to mourn. My wife and I chose that passage because her father and grandmother had died earlier that year. Her family had had much to mourn, at our wedding it was time to celebrate. Something many in my wife’s family told her when we were considering whether or not to delay our wedding because of the deaths. God gives us joy and sorrow. We need to accept both in their times.

Daily Bible Study

July 17, 2018 Bible Study — Judge a Man By What, Or Who, He Despises

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.

    Today’s passage begins with a continuation of unconnected proverbs. Then the Book of Proverbs ends with three sets of sayings, “The Sayings of Agur”, “The Sayings of King Lemuel”, and an ode to a virtuous wife. The first part ends with, “The righteous despise the unjust; the wicked despise the godly.” This sums up a point which is made by many of the proverbs throughout the book. You can judge a person by the people they despise. We often judge people by whom they admire, but the problem with that is that they may admire them for characteristics we do not see. However, the wicked universally despise the godly because they feel condemned by their good behavior, while the righteous despise those who treat others unjustly.

    As with all of the other portions of this book, there are multiple pieces of good advice contained within “The Sayings of Agur”. I want to focus on the two requests he makes of God. First, he asks God help him never tell a lie. We should all request this of God. More importantly, we need to recognize that we can only be truthful if God aids us in doing so. Further, we can only avoid sinning if God’s Spirit works within us to accomplish it. We should continuously ask God to keep us from sinning because it is only through the action of His Spirit that we will be able to do so. Second, he asks God to give him only enough wealth to satisfy his needs and perhaps a bit more. Great wealth may cause us to think that we do not need God. Poverty may cause us to sin in order to supply our needs.

    The “Sayings of King Lemuel” finish out the Book of Proverbs. There are two major themes in these sayings. The writer warns those who have authority to drink alcohol only in moderation. Alcohol in large quantity is only a good idea to ease the pain of those who suffer, whether the suffering is physical or otherwise. If those in authority drink alcohol in quantity, they may fail to fairly enforce the laws and may deprive the oppressed of their rights. The writer’s thoughts go on from this to emphasize the importance of looking out for the rights of those who cannot defend themselves.

Daily Bible Study

July 16, 2018 Bible Study — Gossip and Lies Can Be As Destructive As a Physical Attack

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.

    Like the rest of Proverbs, today’s passage contains a collection of proverbs which are not directly connected to each other. It differs from earlier portions by being composed of both short and long proverbs. However, like the earlier portions, many of these proverbs touch on the same things from varying perspectives. For example, the writer comes back again and again to the idea that gossiping is a bad idea. He points out that there are two types of gossip: sharing other people’s secrets and passing on “news” intended to make others look bad. The latter may include sharing things that you know to be untrue, which is especially damaging. If you become known as a gossip, no one will trust you with important information. The harm to yourself, and others, will be greater than the temporary benefit from being seen as “being in the know”.

    There are two proverbs right after each other which appear to be contradictory, but taken together reveal an important truth.

Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or you will become as foolish as they are.
Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or they will become wise in their own estimation.

So, what do they mean? The first one warns us against getting caught up in trying to convince a fool of their foolishness. The second warns us to make sure that we show the fool that we see their arguments as foolish. Or, to put it another way, do not let yourself become emotionally involved in your arguments. If you allow your emotions to take over your argument, you will stop applying logic to it and will allow yourself to become more concerned with winning the argument than finding the right answer to the dispute. However, do not allow a fool to think that you agree with their foolishness.

Daily Bible Study

July 15, 2018 Bible Study — Choose Who You Hang Out With Wisely

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.

    Today’s passage begins with the final few short proverbs that we have been reading over the last few days, then transitions into a section of longer sayings. The shorter sayings are one phrase long, the longer sayings are two or three phrases long. All of these sayings contain wisdom which can help us live richer, fuller, happier lives. However, they are not really connected to each other in any other way.

    However, once again there are themes here which the writer returns to multiple times. The writer reminds us that God looks after the poor. If we use our resources to aid the poor God will bless us, but if we use our resources to oppress the poor, God will make us pay. The writer goes into more depth on his advice that we choose who we spend time with and who we seek to emulate with care. If we spend time with people who cannot control their temper, we will learn not to control our own temper. On the other hand if we spend time with people who are wise, we will gain wisdom. Evil people stir up trouble, if you spend time with them, or even just emulate them, you are likely to find yourself caught up in that trouble. Spend time with those who do good and you will find yourself doing good, which will lead to more blessings than you can imagine (Do not mistake blessings and material wealth. While blessings are sometimes material wealth, the ones to be truly desired are not). Seek to emulate the good done by others and you will find eternal happiness and joy.

Daily Bible Study

July 14, 2018 Bible Study — Know The Full Story Before Reaching a Conclusion

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.

    Again today’s passage contains many unconnected proverbs. However, there are several themes which are touched on from different perspectives by different proverbs. The writer repeatedly comes back to the importance of being careful in what we say. In today’s passage his emphasis is on more than just being careful about what words we choose. He emphasizes the importance of actually knowing what we are talking about. when we argue/debate with others we should be seeking to deepen our understanding of the situation, not just to express our opinion. To that end we need to seek to learn all of the facts before we form an opinion, let alone express it. The writer does not stop there, he points out that we need to listen to both sides of the story before we come to a conclusion. Even if person A is being completely honest with us, it is possible that there are aspects of the situation which they do not know. Which will result in their interpretation being incorrect.

    Something I had never noticed, or perhaps, just never made the connection: If you wish to teach someone not to do wrong, tell them that they have done wrong. Those who are wise enough will change their ways. Those who do not respond to instruction will not learn from punishment. Punish those who failed to learn from instruction in order to teach others. You do not punish someone in order to teach them not to do wrong: you punish them in order to teach others not to do wrong. Understanding this should inform both our criminal justice system and how we deal with subordinates in the work place (or anyone else over whom we have power).

Daily Bible Study

July 12, 2018 Bible Study — Folly and Wickedness Are Inextricably Mixed, As Are Wisdom and Righteousness

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 9-13.

    Both wisdom and folly extend open invitations to all who choose to listen. Wisdom offers us change and hard work, do what wisdom advises and live. Folly offers taking the easy way out, relying on deception. Folly fails to mention how her path always ends in death. In between these two examples the writer warns us that if we correct a mocker for mocking the innocent, they will turn their insults against us. And if we rebuke the wicked, they will turn their assaults against us. However, the wise welcome correction and change their ways when someone shows them how they were doing wrong.

    The rest of today’s passage contains a series of independent proverbs, each one composed of one or two sentences which make important points. Despite the fact that each of these proverbs is independent of the others there are several themes which are repeated. The writer mentions again that fools act wickedly and that the wicked behave foolishly. The righteous do what is wise, even when they are not wise. The writer emphasizes in these many proverbs something which all too many people fail to understand: Wisdom and righteousness go hand in hand, as do wickedness and folly. If you do not know what the wise action is, do what is right to the best of your knowledge and you will not be far off. If you know that an action is wicked or evil, you can be sure that it is also foolish. God honors those who are honest and straightforward, but He despises those who lie and are deceitful.