Tag Archives: Daily Bible Study

Daily Bible Study

September 25, 2022 Bible Study — Jonah Wanted The People Of Nineveh To Suffer For Their Sins, But Was Not Willing To See Others Suffer For His Own Sins

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

I had a couple of different thoughts about the Book of Jonah today.  As I started to try to put those thoughts into words a question occurred to me: why does God seem to hound certain people until they, like Jonah, stop running from His will and consent to fulfill it?  And I think Jonah illustrates at least part of the answer to that question.  Jonah ran from God’s will, but when the judgement God brought down upon him threatened to fall upon those around him, Jonah offered himself up as a sacrifice to turn God’s wrath aside from them.  And that seems to offer up the difference between Jonah and those whom God allows to run away from Him.  God sent destruction in the form of a storm upon the ship Jonah was on until He got Jonah’s attention.  Then, when the people around him, had done everything in their power to escape the storm, only then did they allow Jonah to “take the fall”.  Perhaps, if Jonah had continued to deny God, God would have allowed everyone on board to go on their way, even Jonah.  We do not know, but I have seen people who have turned from God suffer many things until a time comes when God seems to give up on them and allows them to live in peace.  On the other hand, I have seen people who have turned from God suffer one thing after another year after year, until finally they give up and acknowledge God.  One other point, Jonah denied God because he was afraid that the people of Nineveh would turn from their sin and God would forgive them: he wanted them to suffer.  However, Jonah was unwilling for the people on the ship with him to suffer for his sins.  That also plays a roll in why God went so far to bring Jonah back to Him.

I want to contrast the way the people of Nineveh responded to Jonah’s prophecy of destruction to the way the people of Israel responded to Micah’s prophecy (or, at least the way that their response is recorded in today’s passages).  When Jonah prophesied to the people of Nineveh that God would destroy the city in 40 days because of their wickedness, they repented of their evil and began to fast and pray.  On the other hand, Micah tells us that when he told the people of Israel that God was going to destroy Samaria and Jerusalem, they told him to shut up.  When a prophet of God speaks to us, let us respond like the people of Nineveh did here, not the way the people of Israel did.

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

Daily Bible Study

September 24, 2022 Bible Study — As You Have Done, It Will Be Done To You

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Amos 6-9 and Obadiah.

I chose that line out of Obadiah verse 15 as my title for today because it reflected much about what I wanted to write about out of both the portion of Amos for today and Obadiah.  Amos refers to the plumb line which God measures His people against.  He measures us against the standard He used to measure Christ and finds us wanting.  The determining factor in that measure is what we have done to others, but God does not measure us against those others.  He measures us against Jesus.  Fortunately, He also rebuilds us according to that standard if we will allow Him to do so.  Amos also speaks about those who use their religious observance as cover for their deceitful practices; those who diligently take part in religious activities while eagerly awaiting their return to business activities where they will defraud their customers. Finally in Obadiah the prophet condemns the people of Edom for taking advantage of the misfortune of the people of Judah rather than aiding them in their distress.  In all of these cases we learn that it will be done to us as we have done to others.  But there is a positive side to this as well, when we do good for others, that will be done to us.

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

Daily Bible Study

September 23, 2022 Bible Study –Seek God Instead Of Evil

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Amos 1-5.

It was 22 years ago today that my beautiful wife married me. I thank God for her every day.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

Amos was called to prophesy against Israel, but first he prophesied against the surrounding nations and those prophesies speak to the world today.  Amos condemned the nations around Israel for capturing their neighbors and selling them into slavery, for committing atrocities against them in order to take their wealth and/or their land.  God will bring judgement on those who do such things, whether on a nation-state level or on a smaller scale.  Then using the same format as his prophecies against Israel’s neighbors, Amos begins to call out the people of Israel for their sins.  He condemns them for many of the same sins for which he condemned their neighbors: selling people into slavery, abusing the poor in order to make a profit at their expense, and more.  Amos points out how they use goods obtained in violation of God’s laws in their worship practices.

example: Sleeping before the altar in garments taken in pledge, when the Law of Moses explicitly tells them to return a garment taken in pledge before nightfall

Then Amos goes on to condemn them for forcing the religious to violate their deeply held beliefs and silencing those who sought to speak God’s word.  Amos speaks of the suffering which such sins will bring, but he also offers an alternative: Seek God and live.

Amos goes on to make an interesting point.  Do not seek the Day of the Lord for it will be a day of great suffering.  Sometimes we see the evil in this world, the suffering inflicted on the innocent, and desire that God bring His wrath to bear upon those who commit such injustices.  Amos seems to be saying that instead of praying to God to come and make things right, we should do what is right and seek justice for the innocent.  Seek good, not evil, Maintain justice. Love good and hate evil.  Do these things and God will be with you.  And if God is with us, the evil which inspires us to call for the Day of God’s Judgment will retreat.

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

Daily Bible Study

September 22, 2022 Bible Study — Return To The Lord With Fasting and Mourning And He Will Pour Out His Spirit Upon The People

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Joel 1-3.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

There are two aspects to today’s passage, I hope I can write about them in a manner which connects them the way they are connected in the passage.  Unlike other prophets Joel does not specify the sins from which the people should turn in the face of disaster, but he does call on them to turn to God.  He calls on us to turn to God with fasting, weeping, and mourning.  I believe that God’s people are once again in a situation which calls for them to turn to God with fasting, weeping, and mourning.  If we do we will experience the promise which God gave through Joel.  He will pour out His Spirit upon the people and all who call upon His name will be saved.

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

Daily Bible Study

September 21, 2022 Bible Study — Sow The Wind, Or Sow Righteousness, The Choice Is Yours

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 8-14.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

Hosea continues with his condemnation of Israel in today’s passage using metaphors and images which apply today.  He uses here one of my favorite metaphors:

They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

As best I can understand, Hosea means that they create some disorder in order to further their goals, then are surprised when complete chaos results and all order is disrupted.  Those who do this consider a prophet of God to be a fool and those inspired by Him to be maniacs.  As the prophet goes on he says something else I believe to have great relevance today:

They make many promises,
take false oaths
and make agreements;
therefore lawsuits spring up
like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

The context leads me to believe that the prophet means that their promises and agreements are as false as their oaths, or perhaps that they make promises and agreements intending to keep them, but break them when they become inconvenient.  In any case, this reminds me of today where lawsuits have become an impediment to many types of activity.  However, Hosea tells us how to deal with such times.  Instead of sowing the wind, sow righteousness so that we can reap the fruit of love rather than reaping the whirlwind. Seek the Lord so that He will shower us with righteousness.

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

Daily Bible Study

September 20, 2022 Bible Study — God Does Not Condemn The Sins Of Some While Giving The Sins Of Others A Pass

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 1-7.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

Hosea prophesies that the people of Israel had sought gods other than God to worship and had credited those gods as providing the blessings which came from God.  He then said that God would cut them off from both those gods and the blessings He had given them so that they would turn back to Him.  While Hosea’s prophecy is for Israel as a group, as a people, it has relevance for us today as individuals, because we tend to similarly turn to other “gods” when we receive God’s blessings.  And God similarly seeks to turn us back to Him.  Hosea goes on to say that God will not support a double standard: we cannot expect God to punish the prostitutes while asking Him to give the “Johns” a pass.  God will not punish the sins of the oppressed while overlooking the sins of the oppressors.  Further, Hosea warns us not to follow the forms of worshiping God, while giving ourselves a pass for our own sin, not to call out the sins we do not commit, while ignoring our own sins.  God does not overlook some sins, while punishing others.

 

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

Daily Bible Study

September 19, 2022 Bible Study — If You Think You Are Wiser And More Righteous Than Others You Have No Wisdom to Impart To Them

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Daniel 11-12.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

When I was young, Christians spent a lot of time trying to interpret the apocalyptic prophecies such as those in this passage in an attempt to determine when Christ would return.  Sometime in the 1990s the Church in the United States got away from doing that.  While I think that is a good thing, as I believe Jesus made it clear that we will not know the date of return until it happens, we have also, for the most part, stopped trying to understand those passages.  That being said, I find it hard to know what to write about today’s passage.  However, the parts where the messenger talks about the end has some messages which we should take to heart.  He tells us that some of the wise will stumble, but they will be purified and made spotless by what they experience.  There will be a time of great distress, but those whose names are found written in the book will be delivered and those among them who have died will be raised to eternal life.  Then comes the part I want to focus on.  The messenger said that those who impart wisdom (the translation notes offer this as an alternative translation to what is translated as “who are wise”) and those who lead others to righteousness will shine brightly among those who are raised to eternal life.  While part of me wants to say that we should strive to impart wisdom and to lead others to righteousness, I have observed that most of the time the people who strive the hardest to do that have neither wisdom nor righteousness.  So, instead let us strive to live with wisdom and move towards righteousness.  Additionally, imparting wisdom and leading to righteousness are so closely related that they are almost the same thing.  We lead others to righteousness, to Christ, by imparting wisdom to them.  But, if we think we can impart wisdom because we are somehow better than those to whom we are imparting it, we lack wisdom and have not been led to righteousness.

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

Daily Bible Study

September 18, 2022 Bible Study — Do Not Pray Because You Think You Are Righteous

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Daniel 9-10.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

When Daniel realized that the time which Jeremiah had prophesied for Jerusalem to be desolate was coming to an end he began praying to God.  Daniel starts his prayer by praising God and by acknowledging that the punishment which God had meted out was deserved.  Only after confessing the sins of his people does Daniel beg forgiveness and restoration.  Then he makes a point which we must understand and internalize: Daniel does not ask God to restore them because of their righteousness.  He asks God to restore them because of God’s mercy.  In the same way, we need to recognize that we do not deserve the blessings we receive from God.  When we request things from God in prayer, we do not deserve to receive those things because of our righteousness, not even the things which we request for others.  No, our only basis for expecting God to answer our prayers is His goodness and mercy.

 

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

Daily Bible Study

September 17, 2022 Bible Study — Daniel Predicts That One “Like A Human Being” Will Be Given Sovereign Power Over The Earth

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Daniel 7-8.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

Today’s passage contains Daniel’s vision of four beasts and his vision of the ram and the goat.  Traditionally, the four beasts are understood to be the same empires as those in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream which Daniel interpreted at the beginning of this book.  According to that interpretation, the beast like a lion is Babylon, the beast like a bear is Persia, the beast like a leopard with four heads is the Greek empire(s) established by Alexander, and the fourth beast would be the Roman empire (there is some debate about the fourth empire).  I am not convinced of this interpretation because when the fourth beast is slain and destroyed the other three are allowed to live for some time after that. It reads to me as if all four beasts existed at the same time.  I am not sure that the traditional interpretation is not correct, it just seems to me that it misses something.  I cannot, however, come up with a better interpretation.  What I do see in this vision is that someone who was “like a human being” (see translation notes) came before the throne of the Ancient of Days and was given authority and power over all of the earth in place of the four beasts.  I read the wording of the vision to suggest that the four beasts had incomplete authority over the earth, but that the One who was to come would have, does have, complete authority.  The various governments which arise over different parts of the world have authority for a time, but that authority is limited in scope.  While Jesus has authority for eternity and His authority is not limited in scope.

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

Daily Bible Study

September 16, 2022 Bible Study — God Has Numbered Our Days. Will He Find Us Wanting When He Brings Them To An End?

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Daniel 5-6.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

There are many things we can learn from the story about the writing on the wall.  First, by the time you see the writing on the wall, let alone read it, it is too late.  Which brings me to the message.  In some ways that message is for all of us, at least the first part.  God has numbered our days, and while He may not yet have done so, He will bring them to an end.  And God is weighing us on His scales, if we rely on ourselves we will be found wanting.  When God weighs us on His scales only if we put our trust in Jesus will we not be found wanting.  Only by putting our faith in Him and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us will God’s scales balance in our favor. But do not wait until you can read the writing on the wall, because then it will be too late.

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