Tag Archives: Proverbs 30:17

December 21, 2015 Bible Study — Those Who Hate Have Been Deceived By Satan

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 30:17

    At first glance this proverb warns against mocking and scorning your parents. That reading is not wrong, but it is incomplete. I believe it is also a warning against those who mock and scorn other people’s parents. I do not think this is about mocking someone who is a parent. The warning is about encouraging someone to mock their own parents, to scorn their parents teaching.

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Psalm 140

    This psalm makes a great prayer. I will call on the Lord to rescue me from evildoers. I do not rely on my ability to keep me and my loved ones safe. I know that only the Lord can accomplish that. I know that God will help those whom the wicked persecute and bring justice to the poor. Yes, I will call on the Lord and praise His name.

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Revelation 12:1-17

    There are many lessons to be learned from this passage, but the one which strikes me is that Satan is a deceiver. He deceives the whole world. It is Satan, the devil, the dragon from this vision who is responsible for Anti-Semitism and the persecution of Christians. It is the deceit of Satan which leads people to persecute one group or another. In particular, Satan deceives people into persecuting Jews because he failed to destroy Jesus. When he is unable to get at Jews, he turns that persecution against those who faithfully follow Christ. Satan seeks to deceive all people. He uses deception to get us to hate those who have succumbed to another of his deceits. Whenever we allow ourselves to hate our fellow humans, even those who hate us, we have fallen for Satan’s deception.

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Zechariah 1

    From time to time throughout history, God has raised up nations to punish the Jewish people. Time and again those nations go beyond the mandate they were given and persecute the Jewish people beyond the bounds which God had set. When those nations do so, God brings judgment against them and peace to His people. In many ways He uses the the excesses of those who persecute the Jews to bring good things to the Jews. This does not excuse the excesses of those who persecuted the Jewish people and God will bring punishment upon them.

December 21, 2014 Bible Study — “Return To Me, and I Will Return To You,” Says the Lord

For today, One Year Bible Online links here. Christmas is coming soon. Let us remember what it is truly about, the birth of Jesus Christ. Let us strive to not be caught up in the commercialism which is what this season is about for many in our society today.

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Proverbs 30:17

    A young person who mocks the advice given by his parents, rather than listen to it, will find themselves in a world of hurt. You know the people I am referring to, those who think their parents are completely clueless and boring. As a result they never pay attention to their parents’ warnings. While some parents are overprotective and restrictive of their children’s behaviors, they all have more experience about the dangers in this world than their children.

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Psalm 140:1-13

    The psalmist cries out to God for rescue from the wicked and the violent. We cannot expect God to rescue us from the wicked and protect us from the violent if we are also wicked and/or violent. We know that God will help the poor and those whom the wicked and violent persecute. Let us choose to be among the persecuted, not the persecutors.

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Revelation 12:1-17

    This passage is more metaphorical than many and understanding it relies on properly identifying the elements of the metaphor. I will be perfectly honest, my experience is that doing that is beyond most people. However, there are a few that are obvious. The woman described in this passage is the Jewish people. The baby she gives birth to is Jesus. The dragon, at least, is easy. The dragon is Satan, or “The Adversary”.
    One of the points we learn from this passage is that the enemies of Jews are advancing Satan’s agenda. This passage tells us that those who seek to weaken or destroy Israel are serving Satan. This does not mean that we are called to support Israel, merely that we should not work for her destruction. This passage is a good starting point to sort out many evil organizations long before the rest of their evil becomes apparent. If an organization, or ideology, spreads the idea that Jews are inherently evil, it is a tool of Satan and will, sooner or later, be revealed to be evil in many other ways.

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Zechariah 1:1-21

    Zechariah starts off by reminding us that if we return to God, He will return to us. It is we who left God, not the other way around. If we accept that our suffering is a result of our sin, God will show us how to move on and leave it behind. We cannot expect God to relieve our suffering if we do not turn from our sins.
    The rest of this passage fits in well with today’s passage from Revelation. The prophet describes how God is angry with the nations which He used to punish the sins of the Jewish people. He tells us that when God chose to punish the people of Israel these nations went beyond God’s intentions in bringing harm to them. To me this says that while we may suffer as a result of our actions/sins, that does not excuse those who bring about this suffering. Just because someone deserves to suffer does not mean that we are not sinning when we inflict that suffering on them.

December 21, 2013 Bible Study — Victory Through the Blood of the Lamb

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

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Zechariah 1:1-21

     Zechariah also prophesied to the Jews who returned to Judah and Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile. He begins by calling the people to turn to God and to make God the focus of their lives. He warns them against making the mistake that their ancestors made when they did not listen to the prophets who called them to repentance. This introduction is followed by a vision which Zechariah saw. In the vision, Zechariah hears that God is angry with the nations He used to punish the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Those nations were given power over God’s people in order to punish them, but they used that power to do evil. God is now going to send destruction upon them to punish them for their evil.

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Revelation 12:1-17

     John describes the next part of his vision where he sees a great dragon attempt to devour the son born to the woman with a crown of twelve stars (presumably the people of Israel, with the twelve stars representing the twelve tribes and her son representing Jesus). However, the child was snatched away from the dragon as soon as it was born and carried to God and His throne. The woman fled to a place which God had prepared for her to stay safe from the dragon for a period of time. Michael and his angels waged war with the dragon. Upon defeating the dragon, Michael and his angels cast the dragon and his angels down to earth.
     Those who rely on the blood of the Lamb will be victorious over the dragon, the one who accuses them before God. Upon finding itself cast out of heaven, the dragon pursued the woman, but the woman was protected from his attacks. This led the dragon to turn his attacks against the woman’s other children, those who obediently follow God’s commands and testify to Jesus’ wonderful name.
     This passage may indicate a time to come, but it reads to me as being representative of history since the birth of Christ. Satan has been cast forth upon the earth and has declared war against those who follow Jesus. He is able to cause much suffering upon the earth, but ultimately each and every believer is able to be victorious over him by relying on Jesus’ blood and remaining faithful in testifying to their trust in Him.

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Psalm 140:1-13

     God will rescue those who trust in Him from the traps which evil people lay before them. I do not need to seek to defeat them, I need only follow God’s direction and commands and the traps they lay for me will not catch me. If I faithfully follow God’s commands, the traps that evil people set for me will fail to catch me. Those traps will instead catch those who set them. God will help those persecuted by liars and will give justice to the poor. I will praise God’s name and live in His presence, then I will not need to fear the plots of the wicked.

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Proverbs 30:17

     Those that mock their father and despise their mother’s instruction will suffer for it. They will be unable to recognize good advice when they receive it.

December 21, 2012 Bible Study–Return to the Lord

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.

Christmas Roses
Christmas Roses

Zechariah 1:1-21

     The prophet Zechariah begins his ministry with a call to return to the Lord. He tells us not to be like those of the past who the prophets called to return to the Lord that did not listen. They are long dead, yet what God said through the prophets that He would do came to pass. Those in the past repented when they saw the Lord’s judgment come to pass, will we do the same.
     In the next section the prophet describes a vision where he sees riders mounted on horses. The angle tells him that they are the ones that the Lord has sent out to patrol the earth. The horsemen report that they have finished going throughout the earth and found the world at rest and at peace. On my first pass through this passage, I read this as being four horsemen but upon re-reading it I realized that the passage does not tell us how many horsemen there are. When I re-read the passage, I got the impression of a troop of horse scouts for an army. After the horsemen report, the angel who is Zechariah’s guide in this vision calls out to God asking how long God will remain angry with Jerusalem and the towns of Judah which have been subject to God’s anger for 70 years at this point. God replied to the angel and the angel gave Zechariah the message. Zechariah reported that God was angry with the nations that were experiencing peace and feeling secure. God had been angry with Judah, but the nations went too far in punishing the children of Israel. The prophet reports that God had told him that the towns of Judah (and Israel?) would be overflowing with people once more. Today’s passage ends with a vision of four horns and four craftsmen (blacksmiths in NLT). Zechariah is told that the four horns represent those nations which had scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem. He is told that the four craftsmen have come to throw down the nations that have lifted themselves up against the land of Judah.

Strings Practice
Strings Practice

Revelation 12:1-17

     The writer sees a vision of a woman about to give birth and of a great dragon. The dragon stood before the woman so that it could devour the woman’s child when it was born. However, when she gave birth the child, a son, was swept up to God away from the dragon. Then the woman fled into the wilderness. At the same time the woman fled there was a war in heaven between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels. The dragon was defeated and he and his angels were cast out of heaven. The writer tells us that the dragon is the ancient serpent (a reference to the serpent in the Garden of Eden?) who is called the devil, or Satan.
     Then a voice cried out that the Kingdom of God has now come because the one who accused “our brothers” before God has been cast out of heaven. They defeated him through the blood of the Lamb and because they did not love life so much that they were afraid to die. When the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the child, but she was given refuge from the dragon. Since the dragon was thwarted in his attempts to destroy the woman, he went to war against her other children, who the writer tells us are those who follow the commands of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
     This passage refers to the coming of Christ and the persecution of the Church. The passage refers to the woman going to a place in the wilderness where she would be nourished for 1260 days and at another point the writer says she would nourished there for “a time, times, and half a time.” The Kingdom of God has come and Satan has been cast out of heaven. He can no longer stand before God and bring accusation against those who follow the Lord. Satan is now seeking to destroy those on this earth who strive to live in God’s love. Let us not love this life so much that we are afraid to die in service to God.

New Life at Christmas
New Life at Christmas

Psalm 140:1-13

     The psalmist cries out to the Lord for protection from the plots of evil people. He asks the Lord to not let him fall into their traps. I pray to God that He not let me fall into the traps and snares set to lead me to sin. I praise the Lord because I know that He will protect those whom the evil plot against and give justice to the poor. I will live in God’s presence and follow His path. As long as I keep my eyes upon God, He will keep me from being led onto paths of sin.

Amaryllis Bud
Amaryllis Bud

Proverbs 30:17

     Those who mock their father and despise their mother’s instruction will be blinded and walk in darkness.