Tag Archives: 09/25/23 Bible Study

Daily Bible Study

September 26, 2023 Bible Study — God Requires Three Things of Us: That We Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With Him

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Micah 3-7.

Micah warns Israel, both the Northern and Southern kingdoms, that God will bring judgement on them because their leaders hate what is good and love what is evil instead of embracing justice and because their religious leaders teach what those who are willing to pay want to hear while condemning those who will not bribe them.  But Micah also has a message for those who sincerely want to know what they should do in order to please God.  Micah tells us that God has shown us what is good, we have no excuse.  Let us act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.  I want to take a minute and go over what those three things mean.  To act justly means that we apply the same rules to those people we don’t like as we do to the people we do like.  To love mercy means that we forgive those who repent.  To walk humbly with our God means that we accept His judgement of ourselves and of others.  That one requires a little more because some of us struggle with this next part of its meaning: to walk humbly with our God also means that we recognize that we are not God, and that God is greater than we are.

 

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

Daily Bible Study

September 25, 2023 Bible Study — We Cannot Escape God’s Plans for Us

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jonah 1-4 and Micah 1-2.

God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and prophesy that it would soon be destroyed.  However, Jonah did not want to preach this message to the people of Nineveh because he wanted them to be destroyed and was afraid that they would listen to his prophecy and repent.  So, in order to avoid inadvertently delivering God’s message to the Ninevites, Jonah decided he would go in the opposite direction.  However, when God brought misfortune upon Jonah, Jonah surrendered and agreed to deliver God’s message.  When the Ninevites repented, Jonah was angry that God chose to withhold the destruction He had Jonah prophesy.  Finally, Jonah gets angry because a vine which had grown up to give him shade died.  God uses the death of this vine to point out to Jonah that he was more concerned with his own comfort than the lives of thousands of people.  Ultimately, the Book of Jonah has two vitally important messages for us:

  1. There is no place to which we can run to escape God’s plans for us
  2. We should value others more than we value our comfort

I was not sure I was going to write about Micah, but after reading it I had some thoughts I wanted to write down.   Micah prophesies that God’s judgement is about to pour out against Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and against Judah, the Southern Kingdom.  The sins of the people of both kingdoms will result in terrible destruction for them.  Micah tells us that the sins of these nations spread out from their capitals.  Samaria and Jerusalem were to blame for the people of Israel and of Judah sinning in ways which led to invasion and desolation.  As we read on into chapter two we realize that Micah’s prophecy against Samaria and Jerusalem is not specific to those geographic locations.  Instead, Micah tells us that the leaders of the people were responsible for their sins.  Micah’s message here is twofold.  First, the rich and powerful will suffer the same desolation from their sins that the common people will experience.  Second, if we allow our leaders to lead us into sin, we will suffer the consequences.

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