Tag Archives: Christianity

Daily Bible Study

January 26, 2015 Bible Study– Faith As Small As A Mustard Seed

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 5:7-14

    Stay away from immoral people, if you allow them to suck you into their immorality you will regret it. It may seem pleasing at first, but you will lose your honour and everything of value.

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Psalm 22:1-18

    This is the psalm which Jesus referenced when He hung on the cross and cried out “My God, My God why have you abandoned me?” According to tradition, when a rabbi, or teacher of Jewish law, quoted the first line of a passage of Scripture, he was quoting the entire passage. So, let’s take a look at the first part of this passage which Jesus quoted while on the cross. I will look at the rest tomorrow.
    The psalm reflects feelings of great despair. Yet, even in that despair, it gives glory to God and acknowledges the good He has done in the past. The psalmist expresses that he is in great pain from the scorn and mockery of those around him. They ask why, since he relies on God and claims God’s love, God does not save Him? In the Gospels we are told that the crowd around Jesus echoed verse 8 of this psalm. The psalmist (and Jesus by referencing this psalm) declares that it was God who brought him safely from his mother’s womb. God has been his God since birth. This portion of this psalm is both a statement of despair and one of great faith.

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Matthew 17:10-27

    When the father brought his son to Jesus to request healing and tells Him that the disciples had been unable to heal the boy, Jesus expresses anger. It is not clear to me what Jesus was angry about. It is unclear to me why Jesus is angry. Based on what He says after healing the boy there are two possibilities that I can see, but I am not sure which is true, or whether there is some further explanation which has not occurred to me. The first possibility is that Jesus is angry with His disciples because they did not have enough faith to heal the boy. The second possibility is that He was angry because the father did not have faith that the disciples could heal the boy.
    Jesus follows this up with telling His disciples that if they had faith no larger than a mustard seed, they could tell a mountain to move, and it would move. I truly believe that this is true. However, I believe that if you have faith that it is God’s will for that mountain to move, you will do more than tell it to move. You will grab a shovel and start digging, or hire an earth mover if you can afford one. If your faith tells you that something needs to be done, you won’t wait for God to perform a miracle, you will start doing whatever is within your power to accomplish that something. If you grab a shovel and start digging, that mountain WILL     Let us look for the “mountains” in this world that God wants moved and grab our shovels! Let’s stop worrying that we do not have “enough” to complete the task and do what is within our power, trusting God to provide the difference. Remember the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000.

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Exodus 2:11-3:22

    In many ways this passage is the perfect counterpoint to what I just said about faith. In this passage, Moses went to visit his people. He recognized their suffering and acted in an attempt to relive that suffering. Things did not work out as he had planned and he had to flee Egypt. Forty years later, God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and told him it was time to return to Egypt and lead His (and his) people out of Egypt. The first time did not work out because it was not yet God’s time.
    When God called Moses to return to Egypt, Moses resisted the call. He had learned the wrong lesson from his earlier failure. The lesson Moses learned from his first failure was that he was not the person to lead the Israelites. As I said, this was the wrong lesson. The problem with Moses first attempt to lead the people of Israel was that he tried to do it on his own (and, perhaps, it was not yet God’s time). So, when we grab that “shovel” I talked about in the previous section, let’s remember that we are not going to accomplish the task. We are merely providing our hands to do God’s work. A second thing for us to keep in mind is that we should approach such things prayerfully to make sure that it is God’s will that this “mountain” move. Let us remember that, perhaps, it is not yet God’s time for that mountain to move.

Daily Bible Study

January 25, 2015 Bible Study — The Gates Of Hell Will Not Stand Against It

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 5:1-6

    This proverb warns against getting involved with an immoral, or adulterous, woman. I cannot speak from personal experience but I am confident that its warning applies to immoral/adulterous men as well. The proverb writer warns us that initially being involved with an immoral person is sweet and gives pleasure, but in the long run they are poison. Becoming involved in an immoral relationship will bring pleasure at first, but that pleasure will turn to pain and attempts to revive the pleasure will lead to death.

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Psalm 21:1-13

    This psalm was written for and about King David, but a careful reading reveals advice for any leader. If you trust in the Lord and seek to do His will, He will give you your heart’s desire. It is worth noting that your heart’s desire may be different from what you think you want. Trust in the Lord and make sure that all of your successes bring honour to Him and your successes will be without end, even your “failures” will prove to be successes.

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Matthew 16:13-17:9

    Jesus asked His disciples the easy question, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” It is interesting that when He asked that question He used that phrase to refer to Himself. As I said, that is an easy question. It is not just the answer itself that is easy, pointing out why they are wrong is also easy. Jesus’ next question is the hard one, and the one which we are going to have to answer, sooner or later, “Who do you say I am?” I imagine a long pause while the disciples thought about their answer, none of them wanting to be the first to say it, each afraid that they are wrong. Finally, Peter blurts out the answer. I suspect that it is something none of the disciples have said previously, not even in their private conversations with each other. I imagine they have had conversations which assume the answer, but that they have each avoided saying it out right, reserving the right to say, “Oh, I was just talking hypothetically.”(although I doubt they would have used that word)
    So, the question is, do we agree with Peter? Is Jesus the Anointed One, the Son of the living God? I just came to a new understanding of Jesus’ reply to Peter’s answer. I am not sure if it is correct, but I am going to share it. The rock upon which Jesus built His Church is those willing to take the risk of being the first in a group to declare their faith in Jesus. In order for a group of Christians to work together to do God’s will, one of them must be willing to be the first to declare themselves God’s servant. This is not limited to those who are the first, just those willing to be first. It is this boldness which gives the Church the ability to overcome the gates of Hell.
    I have often heard people talk about Jesus’ statement here as a promise of protection. But it is not. It is a promise of victory. Gates are not used to attack people. Gates are used to stop people. We are not called to stand defensively and resist the attacks of Satan. We are called to take the battle into the heart of the enemy’s city and rescue those held captive there. When Jesus says that the gates of Hell will not overcome His Church, He is calling us to storm Hell. Are we up for that battle?
    We are not called to be on the defensive. It is time to go on offense and claim the world for Christ.

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Genesis 50:1-26

    When Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers were afraid that, with their father dead, Joseph would take revenge. This situation reminds us that things change and guilt will come back to haunt those we have forgiven. We need to remind them that we have forgiven them. Joseph’s statement is also one we need to remember. Those who have done us wrong may have done so with malicious intent, but, despite the pain they may have caused us, God will use their malicious acts to accomplish good in our lives.

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Exodus 1-2:10

    Jacob’s descendants had it good in Egypt for a while, but times change and people forget. The people of Egypt, particularly the political leaders, became afraid of the Israelites and forgot why they had been given special treatment. I never noticed before, but the passage does NOT say that they Israelites outnumbered the Egyptians and were more powerful than they. I says that the said those things about them. We see the classic approach of the demagogue in what the Pharaoh says. He picks a group and demonizes it. Ultimately, the people of Egypt paid a heavy price for following such a demagogue. Such is the case every time.

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January 24, 2015 Bible Study — Reading the Signs of the Times

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 4:20-27

    This section of Proverbs reminds us of what Jesus said in yesterday’s passage. The starting place for living a good life is to keep your heart pure. In order to keep your heart pure be careful about what you say. Stay away from perverse and corrupt talk. What you say reflects what is in your heart. Yet it also has the power to corrupt your heart. Let us focus our thoughts on doing what God wants in our own lives and not worry about what others are doing which may be contrary to God’s will (or not). There are times when we are called to speak to others about the sin in their lives, but let us remember that we are not called to speak to third parties about it.

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Psalm 20:1-9

    Every year when I read this psalm I think, “What a wonderful blessing, or toast, the first five verses make.” I am determined to remember this and bring it out when I am called upon to offer up such at an event of various kinds. I make this my prayer for those of you reading this today:

May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.
May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.
May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
May we shout for joy over your victory
and lift up our banners in the name of our God.

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Matthew 15:29-16:12

    It was not long before the events which took place in today’s passage that Jesus fed the 5,000 and walked on water. Yet when Jesus says that He does not want to send the crowd away hungry, the disciples ask, “Where would we get enough food for such a large crowd?” Once more Jesus showed them that God can provide. He took the small amount of food which they had and divided it up among all the people present. There was enough for everyone and more leftover than they had begun with. This has the same important lesson as the feeding of the 5,000. We should not be afraid to do God’s will even if we think we have insufficient resources. If we stretch our resources as far as they will go helping others, God will supply sufficient to meet the need, with plenty leftover.
    Then one day a group of religious leaders came to Jesus and demanded that He perform a miraculous sign to prove His authority. This comes after He has healed numerous people and fed two large crowds. I am convinced that they were like those who demand proof of God’s existence and then dismiss every thing presented as coincidence. If Jesus had performed a miracle for them, they would have explained it away. Jesus confronts them with their unwillingness to see what the events going on around them mean. The Pharisees were unable (or unwilling) to read the signs of the times. Are we willing to see what God is showing us?

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Genesis 48-49:33

    Jacob blessed his grandsons by Joseph, giving priority to the younger. A short while later he blessed all of his sons. His blessing on his sons reflects with fair accuracy the behaviors and actions of their descendants.

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January 23, 2015 Bible Study — Blind Guides Leading The Blind

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 4:14-19

    Do not follow the example of the wicked. They are constantly seeking new ways to do evil. As a result, their path is in complete darkness so that they do not know what they are tripping over. The righteous on the other hand can easily see the obstacles in their way and go around them.

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Psalm 19:1-14

    Every time I look up at the stars at night, or at a beautiful sunrise/sunset, I am reminded of the glory of God. I feel sorry for those who think those things came about by happenstance for no particular reason.
    Further into the psalm the psalmist reminds us of the value of God’s commands. His instructions will refresh our souls when we feel parched and depressed. Even those who are simple minded and slow can learn wisdom by following God’s laws.

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Matthew 15:1-28

    When the Pharisees and teachers of the law confronted Jesus because He did not teach His disciples to keep their traditions, He responded by pointing out that they used their traditions to teach their disciples to not keep God’s law. I started to write my thoughts four times before I was satisfied with where I was going. It is more important to please God than it is to keep traditions. We should review traditions on a regular basis in order to be sure that they are consistent with God’s commands. It is too easy for us to warp a tradition to serve our own selfish purposes rather than helping people to keep God’s commands.
    Most traditions start out as a way to help people keep God’s commands, but over time people tend to forget the reasons why a tradition was started. When that happens one of two things results. Some people keep the tradition in a way which violates its original purpose. Other people stop doing the good thing the tradition was intended to encourage as well as the tradition itself. In both cases they are the blind leading the blind. They do not know why something was done and as result they either blindly follow it without accomplishing the purpose for which it was designed, or blindly dismiss it without replacing it with another method of accomplishing the purpose for which it was designed. If we wish to avoid being blind guides, we need to make sure that we do not follow man-made ideas as if they were commands from God, much less teach them.

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Genesis 46-47:31

    There is a lesson in this passage that we often overlook. Because the people of Egypt had not themselves prepared for the coming famine during the times of plenty, they became dependent on the government (Pharaoh). As a result of this dependency, the government became the owner of all of the land and means of production. Once the people lost their land and other means of production, they lost their freedom. When times are good, we must save and store so that when times are bad we do not become dependent on others.

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January 22, 2015 Bible Study — Keep Your Eyes On Jesus

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 4:11-13

    Find a teacher who will teach the ways of wisdom and lead you in a straight path. If you do this, nothing will block you as you seek your goals.

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Psalm 18:37-50

    Let us serve the Lord so that our only enemies will be those who hate Him. When that is the case we can be confident that we will stand victorious over them. When your enemies tell you that God is dead, just remember, Jesus’ enemies said the same thing on Good Friday approximately 2000 years ago!

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Matthew 14:13-36

    When the disciples ask Jesus to send the crowd away to get food for themselves, Jesus tells them to feed them. The disciples respond that they have just enough for themselves. Jesus’ answer is to have the disciples bring their food to Him. He then blesses the food and breaks it into portions for the disciples to distribute. The lesson here is that when we do the will of God our supplies will be sufficient to complete the task He has set us.
    This is followed by the story of Jesus walking on the water. Actually, the part of this which has seemed like the important part of this story is that Peter walked on water. There are two elements here. Peter got out of the boat and started walking to Jesus. Then he started looking at the waves and he began to sink. It is often pointed out that Peter got into trouble because he took his eyes off of Jesus. This is true…and important. But we often forget to point out what he was able to accomplish as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. It was when Peter stopped thinking about Jesus and started to think about what he was doing, “Look at me! I am walking on water,” that Peter got into trouble. When the focus of his thoughts were on going to Jesus, on following where Jesus led, Peter was able to do the impossible. When he started looking around and thinking about what he was doing that Peter got into trouble. It was then that he started thinking, “How am I doing this? What if it stops working?” If we focus on Jesus and following Him without thinking about what we are doing, we too can “walk on water” (literally, but not just walk on water. We can do much more.). However, if we start to think “Look at me! I am really doing the Lord’s work now,” we too will start to worry about what could go wrong. No matter what we are doing, whether it is healing the sick, feeding the hungry, or preaching the Gospel, we need to make sure we are doing it in order to get closer to Jesus, not so that others see what wonderful Christians we are.

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Genesis 44-45:28

    Joseph tested his brothers in many ways in order to see if they had changed as much as he had. He put them into circumstances where they could have easily left their brother to suffer. However, they demonstrated that not only did they regret what they had done to him, they were willing to sacrifice themselves to save their brother Benjamin. However the most important part of this passage was when Joseph told his brothers that they should not be angry with themselves for what they did to him. It was God’s plan to send Joseph into Egypt ahead of them to save them and their families from the famine, as well as saving many others. We should have similar view of life. The difficulties and hardships we face in life are there in order to position us so as to carry out God’s will when the time is ripe.

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January 21, 2015 Bible Study — Let God Sort Them Out (Part 2)

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Proverbs 4:7-10

    The first step to being wise is to seek to gain wisdom. If you do not value wisdom, you will be stuck being a fool. Whatever else you do with your life, develop good judgment. Seek wisdom, no matter what it costs you in material wealth. Spend your fortune, if that is what it takes, to acquire understanding. If you embrace wisdom, wisdom will bring you honour.

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Psalm 18:16-36

    Our enemies may attack us when we are at our most vulnerable, but God will reach down from heaven to rescue us. He will lead us to safety…all we have to do is follow Him. If we keep to the ways of God and do not turn to evil, those ways will lead us to safety. God is faithful to those who are faithful. He shows His integrity to those who demonstrate integrity. The pure will see that God is pure. But the devious will discover that God is cunning.

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Matthew 13:47-14:12

    Today’s passage contains one more parable about the Kingdom of Heaven. In this parable Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to fishing with a net. When fishing with a net, you catch everything in the water where you spread your nets. It is only after you have drawn the nets to the shore that you separate the good fish from the bad. In the same way, we are called to spread our nets and bring everyone into the Kingdom of Heaven. When the end comes God will sort out those who belong from those who do not. It is not up to us to determine who “deserves” to be in the Kingdom of Heaven and who does not. There is a saying which is sometimes used during war, “Kill them all. Let God sort them out.” There is a kernel of truth to that, but the Christian version of this is, “Invite them all. Let God sort them out.”

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Genesis 42:18-43:34

    We see in today’s passage the fulfillment of the dreams which Joseph had as a boy when his brothers bowed down before him. I think Joseph found this result much less glorious than he imagined it would be when he had those dreams as a boy.

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January 20, 2015 Bible Study — Let God Sort Them Out

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Proverbs 4:1-6

    The proverb writer tells young men to listen to their father. He is giving them the best advice that he can. Your father was once someone’s son. No matter what your father teaches you, hold on to wisdom and develop good judgment. With those two tools, you will be able to listen to what your father teaches you and distinguish between what he says which is wise and what represents lessons he has incompletely learned. However, never make the mistake of thinking you know more than your father.

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Psalm 18:1-15

    I will make God my strength and my fortress. It is to Him I will turn for protection. We may seem to be at the end of our ropes about to die and God may seem far away, but He will hear our cry. No matter how far away He may be, God is not so far from us that He cannot arrive in time to rescue us. It matters not what obstacles have been put in His path, He will brush them aside, destroying whatever stands between Him and delivering us. Our enemies may think they have planned so as to prevent Him from reaching us, but they will not see God coming until it is too late. I will trust in the Lord and be faithful to Him when times are good, then I will know that I can trust in Him when times are bad and trouble is at the door.

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Matthew 13:24-46

    Jesus tells us several parables that describe aspects of the Kingdom of Heaven in today’s passage. In the first of these, He describes weeds growing up among the crops in a field. Rather than send His workers to weed the field, God tells them to wait until the harvest to separate the weeds from the crop. The problem with trying to pull the weeds before the harvest is that we will accidentally pull some of the crop as well. This is the problem with trying to decide who, and who is not, a Christian. Some of those we decide look like “weeds” will turn out to be part of the “good crop”. If we “pull” them up before they are ripe we lose the opportunity to experience the fruit they would have produced. It is not our job to sort the “weeds” from the “good crop”. Let God sort them out when the time comes.
    Next we have the parable of the mustard seed. There are probably other ways to look at this, but for me it is a reminder not to worry that our starting point in addressing a problem is small. The mustard seed is very small, but the plant which grows from it is very large. In the same way, those whom God has called to a task may seem too few to accomplish the task, but they will grow in number until their impact spreads well beyond what anyone would have dreamed possible..
    This is followed by the parable of the yeast. This parable made me realize a key factor about the role of Christians in society. The yeast used to make bread is a very small part of the ingredients. Yet, the yeast transforms the dough. If you mix all of the other ingredients together and leave out the yeast, the dough ball thus formed will remain static. On the other hand, when you add yeast, the dough ball becomes transformed and expands. This is the nature of Christians in society. If we live faithful lives we will transform society around us, changing it for the better all out of proportion to our numbers in that society.

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Genesis 41:17-42:17

    Yesterday I talked about how Joseph remained faithful to God even in all of his troubles. Today’s account talks about when Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams. When Joseph told the Pharaoh the meaning of his dream he did not put himself forward at all. It was Pharaoh who thought that Joseph was a good choice to execute the plan which Joseph had outlined. When I read how Joseph presented the plan, I read an account of someone who was more concerned with the best interests of people than with accumulating power. We should strive to emulate Joseph AND seek leaders who emulate Joseph.
    Joseph did not tell the Pharaoh, “Put me in charge to make this plan work.” Rather Joseph said, “Find an intelligent and wise man and put him in charge.” It is hard for me to imagine that Joseph did not think he was the best man for the job, but rather than put himself forward, he put the plan forward. If it took someone else being put in charge to get the plan implemented, Joseph was OK with that.

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January 19, 2015 Bible Study

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 3:33-35

    It is interesting to note that this proverb uses “house” when referring to the wicked, and “home” when referring to the righteous. The clear implication it that only the righteous truly have a home; the wicked merely have a place where they live.

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Psalm 17:1-15

    When we cry to God for help we need to be honest with ourselves and with God. God has examined our hearts and tested our thoughts. He knows what we truly think and feel. We may convince ourselves of the lies we tell, but God will not be fooled. However, if we are honest when we pray to God, He will answer our prayers. Let us follow His commands because He has given them to us as expressions of His unfailing love. If we follow the path He has laid out for us, we will be kept safe from our enemies.

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Matthew 12:46-13:23

    Jesus explained to His disciples that He taught in parables because only some are allowed to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven. In the NIV, verse 12 reads: “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” I have struggled to understand what He meant by this. The NLT translates verse 12 in the following way: “To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.”
    The NLT reading makes Jesus’ meaning clear to me. Those who listen to Jesus’ teaching with the intent to understand it, will find more and more of it becoming clear as time goes on. On the other hand, those who listen to Jesus’ teachings with the intent of discovering its flaws will find it to make less and less sense and time goes on. In addition, the latter group will, over time, find themselves less and less able to recognize the difference between good and evil.

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Genesis 39-41:16

    When Joseph was young he was his father’s favorite and dreamed of great things. He was convinced that those dreams were visions, and we know that they were indeed visions from God. His pride in the visions which God has given him lead to his downfall and he is sold into slavery by his brothers. He ends up in Potiphar’s house in Egypt. He does not forget his dedication to God and rises to high position in Potiphar’s house. This time it is his very faithfulness to God which leads to his downfall. He is imprisoned for a crime which he did not commit.
    Despite this, Joseph remains faithful to God. Once more, Joseph’s faithfulness and integrity lead him to rise to the highest possible position. Despite the fact that he has risen to positions of authority time and again, Joseph takes no credit for his success. Rather he credits God for his skill and wisdom. It was Joseph’s continued faithfulness to God that put him in a position to raised to the highest level in the land when God’s time was right. We would do well to follow Joseph’s example. If we are faithful to God and maintain our integrity, He will open ever greater opportunities for us to serve Him.

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January 18, 2015 Bible Study — Are We For Jesus, Or Against Him?

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Proverbs 3:27-32

    If you can do good for someone who deserves it, don’t put it off. If someone needs your help, deserves your help, and you could help right now, DO IT. Don’t wait until tomorrow, that might be too late.

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Psalm 16:1-11

    God is my master because every good thing I have comes from Him. When I look at the world around me I realize that it is the godly who are the true heroes. Being an athlete, a pop music star, or a movie star, or any other kind of pop culture star does not make one a hero. Those are not the people we should hold up to be honored. Instead, I will honor those who do the will of God.

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Matthew 12:22-45

    Jesus says that whoever is not for Him is against Him. Yet, shortly after the Transfiguration,He told the disciples that whoever is not against us is for us. These two statements seem in contradiction. However, when taken together they tell us something about Jesus and Christian faith that people often try to sidestep. There is not such thing as being neutral when it comes to Jesus. Sooner or later everyone must reach a decision. They are either for Him, or against Him. You must decide if you believe that He is your Savior, the Son of God, or you must believe that He is some combination of crazy/evil.
    There are those who try to get around this choice by saying that He is fictional. However, that only puts off the problem for a bit. If you believe that He is fictional, you will still have to decide whether the teachings attributed to Him are good or evil. Ultimately, the teachings attributed to Jesus cannot truly be good if Jesus is a fictional character. This leaves you with the conclusion that those teachings are evil when taken as a whole, even though you may think some of them are bad. So, either Jesus was God, and the only path to salvation, or He was evil/crazy (or the invention of evil/crazy people). Those are the only two options and, sooner or later, everyone is going to have to choose between them.

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Genesis 37-38:30

    I find the story of Judah and Tamar interesting. One thing I wondered about when I was younger was why God made the Israelites slaves in Egypt. Why did His chosen people have to suffer through that slavery? I found that answer in the story of Judah and Tamar. Judah thought nothing of joining into pagan worship by visiting a shrine prostitute. I take Judah’s attitude as typical of his brothers. If Jacob’s sons were already casually integrating with the pagan practices in this way, how long would it have been before they had completely adopted the local practices?
    So, the answer to the question I started this section with is, the Israelites had to suffer through slavery in order to forge them into a people separated from others by their worship of God. We see this still to this day. From time to time the Church becomes too much a part of society around us. When that happens, God allows persecution to arise in order to call His people out from the midst of society so that they will renew their dedication and love for Him.

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January 17, 2015 Bible Study — It Is Always Lawful To Do Good

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Proverbs 3:21-26

    The writer reminds us to keep our eyes on wisdom and understanding. Let us strive to preserve our sound judgment and discretion. These are the tools which will help us to walk a straight path and avoid stumbling. If we remember to act according to wisdom and understand, sound judgment and discretion we will not fear when we lie down on our beds to sleep.

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Psalm 15:1-5

    I love this psalm. It gives us a nice checklist of things ways to behave in order to please God:

  • Lead blameless lives
  • Do what is right
  • Speak the truth from the heart
  • Do not speak slander
  • Do no wrong to a neighbor
  • cast no slur on another
  • Despise the vile
  • Honor those who fear the Lord
  • Keep our promises, even when it hurts
  • Lend money to the poor without interest
  • do not accept bribes against the innocent

These are things for which no one can be condemned. If we do all of them we will be able to stand firm even when the ground around us collapses.

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Matthew 12:1-21

    We have two stories in today’s passage which give us insight into the limits of rules used to guide behavior. In the first story, Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of breaking the law because they casually broke off heads of grain and ate them on the Sabbath. The Pharisees said they were harvesting on the Sabbath. In response, Jesus’ points out exceptions to the Law found in scripture. He then quotes Hosea 6:6 to them to show that God does not desire slavish obedience to the letter of the Law. God does not desire our sacrifices, He desires us to show mercy and love.
    The second story occurs in the synagogue of these same Pharisees. When He entered the synagogue, Jesus took notice of a man with a crippled hand. The Pharisees asked Him if the law allowed someone to heal on the Sabbath, with the implication that healing was work (and the Law banned working on the Sabbath). Jesus then asks a rhetorical question. If one of your animals fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to get it out? Jesus then answers the question by telling them that, of course, they would. They would neither let the animal suffer, nor risk the loss of their asset, in order to wait for the end of the Sabbath. To sum up His teaching: it is never wrong to do good.

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Genesis 35-36:43

    After the confrontation with the people of Schechem over the rape of Jacob’s daughter Dinah, Jacob moves to Bethel. Jacob was worried about the people of the area around Schechem mustering and attacking him and his family in response to his sons taking revenge on the people of Schechem for his daughter’s rape. God appeared to him and told him to move to Bethel and build an altar. In response to God’s direction, Jacob tells his family and servants to purify themselves and get rid of all of their pagan idols. As a result they gave him all of their idols and their earrings, which Jacob then buried under an oak at Schechem. I find it interesting that they gave Jacob both their idols and their earrings. I don’t know what the significance is of that, but I find it interesting. The more interesting thing is that rather than destroy the idols, Jacob buried them under a tree which could be used to find them again later.
    Bethel was the place where Jacob had had the vision of the staircase to heaven while he was fleeing Esau many years earlier. His return here is symbolic, intentionally so on his part. He has returned to reaffirm his dedication to serving God. He was reminded at Schechem of the promises which God had made to him those many years ago, and of his promise in return. Getting rid of the idols in his household was part of keeping those promises he had made those many years ago as he rededicates himself and his household to God.