For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    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.

    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!

    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.

    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.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    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.

    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.

    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.”

    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.

     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, or more. in advance. My work schedule has recently changed, meaning that I may not have time every day to complete these. As a result, I am trying to get several days ahead. I hope this does not negatively impact the quality of these posts (if that is possible). If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

     Joseph’s testing of his brothers’ change of heart continues in today’s passage. He frames his brother Benjamin to see how his half brothers will react. When his servants overtake his brothers and discover the “stolen” cup in Benjamin’s possession, Joseph’s brothers all return to Egypt. When they get back to Egypt, they tell Joseph that they have all returned to be his slaves. Joseph tells them that only the man who “stole” the cup would be his slave. The rest were free to return to their father in peace. At which point Judah, the brother whose idea it was to sell Joseph into slavery, steps up to beg for his brother’s freedom. Judah makes an impassioned plea for Joseph to make him a slave and allow Benjamin to return to their father.
     All of the brothers stood by Benjamin when trouble arose. An important point to note is that none of the brothers knew that Benjamin had not stolen the cup. Then when their solidarity was not sufficient to save Benjamin, Judah stepped up and offered himself in Benjamin’s place. When that happened, Joseph could no longer contain himself and revealed to his brothers who he was. Joseph’s brothers showed that not only did they regret what they had done to Joseph, but they had changed and were willing to suffer to prevent the same thing from happening to Benjamin.

     Until today, I had never noticed that the reason Jesus attempted to go off by Himself in this passage was because He had just heard that Herod had executed John the Baptist, His cousin. When Jesus suggested to His disciples that they feed the crowd, they responded that they did not have enough food for that many people. This was after they had been sent out to heal the sick and cast out demons. They had seen Jesus do those things and had then done them, but this was something new. How often are we like that? When God calls us to something new, do we lack the faith to believe that He will provide us with the power to do it?
     The story of feeding the 5,000 is followed up with Jesus walking on the water. It is a kind of follow-up to the way the disciples reacted to Jesus telling them to feed the 5,000. This time when Peter sees Jesus walking on the water, he asks Jesus to tell him to come to Him. When Jesus tells Him to come, Peter gets out of the boat and begins walking on the water as well. However, Peter soon stopped focusing on Jesus and began thinking about the danger he was in. That is when he began to be overwhelmed and started to sink. But even then, he called out to Jesus to save Him. There are two important lessons for us as Christians here (actually, there are probably more than that, but I’m just going to look at two of them). First, if we are going to “walk on water” when God calls us to, we need to get out of the boat. That’s one that lots of people talk about, but it’s important enough for me to repeat. Second, when the distractions around us start to overwhelm us, we can call out to Jesus and He will rescue us from the danger that our lack of faith has gotten us into.

     At the beginning of psalm 18 the psalmist told us that he was at his end, about to be overtaken by death and his enemies. Then he called on God for deliverance. In response, God reached down from heaven and struck his enemies. The psalmist was victorious, but not because of his own strength and power. It was only through the strength which God gave him that he was able to stand up and defeat those arrayed against him. The important point of this psalm is that if we remain faithful to God, not only will He rescue us from desperate situations but He will give us the strength to completely defeat those who stand against us. If we are fighting to accomplish the goals which God has set us, we will completely overwhelm every person and force which stands in our way. But we will not do so through our own power, but with the power which God has given us.

The Lord lives! Praise to my Rock!
May the God of my salvation be exalted!

     If we seek out wise teachers (and learn from them) and follow those who walk on straight paths, we will not be held back when we walk nor stumble when we run.

     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, or more. in advance. My work schedule has recently changed, meaning that I may not have time every day to complete these. As a result, I am trying to get several days ahead. I hope this does not negatively impact the quality of these posts (if that is possible). If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

     There are a lot of lessons about God’s providence in this passage. One of the most important is the lesson that in times of plenty we should set aside some of our excess for when times are once again hard. God will provide for our needs, but we have to gather when times are good and save against the hard times. I will even say that God will provide for us in the good times enough so that, if we follow His will, we will be in a position to help those in need in the hard times.

     This is the passage from which the idea of “Kill them all, let God sort them out” derives. Although that phrase badly misses the point of what Jesus says here. He does indeed say, “Let God sort them out.” However, His point was that if we pull the “weeds”, we will inadvertently pull some of the “wheat” as well. Then we will lose some of the blessings which God intended for us to receive. The loss of the good that will happen when we try to decide who is “weed” and who is “wheat” is not worth the gain. Jesus message in this passage is, “Don’t kill any of them, let God sort them out (when the time is ripe).”
     Jesus follows this up with two parables about the Kingdom of Heaven that emphasize the fact that we should not underestimate the impact of doing the small things to which God calls us. The fact that we are few, or that something is minor, should not make us think that it is pointless to act. The mustard seed is very small, yet grows into a large bush. Yeast is a minor ingredient in bread, yet it changes the entire loaf. In the same way, we may start out as just a few people, yet if we do God’s will, He will draw many to us and the tasks He assigns us may seem minor, yet they will transform the community around us. Never think that you are too unimportant and insignificant for God to use you to transform the world.
     Finally, Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is a treasure that is worth us sacrificing everything we value to obtain. If we have truly understand the Gospel message, we will find no amount of hardship and suffering too much to gain the rewards it offers.

     Every time I read this psalm it makes me want to cry for joy. The Lord is my strength. I called out to Him in my distress and He saved me. If you have not read this psalm, read it now. It reads like a scene from an action movie: Our hero is about to be dragged to his death by his enemies. He cries out to God and God answers him. The earth quaked and the mountains shook. Smoke and fire poured forth as God descended on the wings of an angel to save the psalmist from his enemies. I cannot do it justice in my paraphrase, the visuals which the psalmist evokes are just so intense.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.

     The best advice a father can give his child, son or daughter, is contained in this proverb: Get wisdom and develop good judgment, never turn your back on wisdom.