Proverbs 1

What is the purpose of gaining wisdom and knowledge? There are lots of answers to this question and many of them are here in Proverbs 1, but the one that hit me today was found in the first part of verse 4, "for giving prudence to those who are simple." Wisdom and knowledge aren't things just to be gained and hoarded away they are for sharing. It reminds me of the illustration of the two seas in Israel. The Sea of Galilee lets water in but then also releases it into the Jordan River. There is life and prosperity around the Sea of Galilee. The Dead Sea is another story. It takes in and never releases. There is death there. The water contains no life and drinking it doesn't bring life. The difference is one shares the other hoards. It's the difference between life and death. A wise person in God's economy shares. 

Photo by Emil Widlund on Unsplash

Genesis 13

 Now this chapter starts out right. After the debacle in Egypt, Abram goes back to the place where he first built an altar to God. This is a lesson we should all learn from, after your bad plans have gone bad, go back to where you know God was and seek him there.  

If we know God was blessing us when we were doing some things (prayer time, devotionals, church, etc), maybe we should go back to doing them after a mistake/sin in our life. See what happens. I have to believe it would be a wise choice.   

Genesis 12

Let's prepare for the worst and lie. WHAT?!

Everything about the story of Abram lying and letting Pharoah take his wife is insane in my mind. However, I don't live in a world where being killed so someone can take your wife is a real danger, so maybe I shouldn't judge. However, I have to wonder what Sarai thought and why she agreed. There is a lot here to criticize but at the end of the day, God made it right. I'm thankful he does because I haven't done anything like this, but I have done some really dumb things that God has rescued me from.  

Isaiah 5

 

‭Isaiah‬ ‭5:24‬ ‭NLT‬ Therefore, just as fire licks up stubble and dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will rot and their flowers wither. For they have rejected the law of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies; they have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

God blessed Israel and taught them but disobeyed, that is why God sent judgment. Yes, but that's not all. We'll see as we study scriptures that God's reason God does something is often many faceted. When we read one place, it's his anger, in another it's justice for the poor, another it's to purify, and another it's because of His love for bringing disaster. Which is it? It might be hard to understand but it's all of them. 

Here in this chapter, it is because they have been given so much and have chosen to reject it. It goes with the idea, to who much is given much is required.

Genesis 11

 

Unity is a great thing. Or is it a great thing? If people are united for a good cause then yes unity is good in fact without unity great good cannot be accomplished. However, consider the Nazis reunified and they did a lot, I don't want to say great things because some of the things they accomplished were horrible but they accomplished a lot. 

This is where God is concerned in Genesis chapter 11 at the Tower of Babel. The people are coming together to build a great City so they can't be dispersed as God commanded and many believe so they could stand against any future flood and thus stand against God. God wasn't afraid of them building a tower or of them trying to build it to heaven to challenge him. He is greater than anyone. God's concern was that they could do anything but the things they were going to do were going to be bad. How do we know this because whenever your motives are wrong they affect the outcome?

Luke 4

 In 1 John 2:16 John says "For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world." The reason I mention this in light of Luke 4 is because Jesus was tempted in all three of these in this chapter by Satan. Scripture says that Jesus was tempted like us. Maybe not in every specific thing but in every area and yet was able to resist and with his help we can do the same. 

Note: Jesus was able to resist the Devil and used scripture to do it. You can't use what you don't know. Yes, God can and does give grace to new believers but if we are going to resist sin and the Devil we need to know scripture. So let's continue to study.

Psalm 4

 Is there any good in the world?

I find that there are two major schools of thought. The first is that everyone and everything is basically good. The second is that everything basically is bad. David sees this second group and addresses the problem in verse six. David's answer is to ask God to let His light shine on us. I agree. It is when God shines his light on us and we walk in that light is when the world can see that there is good in this world and that good is God.  

I can't leave without commenting on verses 4 and 5. Don't sin when you are angry and boy, is it easy to. Reflect on your life in times of rest. Offer the right sacrifices (do good) and trust God. If we did these how much better would we live. 

Genesis 10

 The list of nations here in Genesis 10 is interesting as many of them will be seen again in the rest of the Bible. The ones that stand out to me are the ones Nimrod was responsible for creating. Three in particular Bablyon, Ninivah, and Assyria. These three will be set in opposition to God and Israel throughout the rest of the Old Testament. This ties into the idea that Nimrod was in opposition to God and that legacy continued for generations. A reminder that our actions have consequences greater than we may imagine and longer than we might believe. 

Genesis 9

 We see the sign of promise, the rainbow, spoken of here. A promise God won't use water to destroy all the Earth again. The interesting side note about a rainbow is that it's not a bow. The light cast from the Sun that forms a rainbow actually produces a circle but usually, we cannot see it from where we're standing. If you have the opportunity to fly on a plane above clouds you might see a full circle of the rainbow. For me, it is a reminder that then we only see part of the promise and part of the plan where God from above can see it all.

Just a personal experience: years ago my family was traveling in a car and spotted a rainbow. We turned to where it looked like it landed in the ground and we found it. I can tell you for a certain there's no gold but what I did see was amazing. The car seemed filled with glimmering and shining colors. It wasn't the same as having a light shined with a colored lens it seemed as left there was a glitter in the air with the color. It's hard to describe but it was amazing. To me just a wonderful reminder of how amazing God's creation is.

Isaiah 4

 Here's a good place to show people that chapters and verses were not in the Bible originally. They we're added to help us navigate the Bible and easily be able to return to places we read before, but they weren't divinely inspired by God. The reason this is a good place to show that is because the first verse of this chapter actually ties in with the previous chapter and the time of judgment. 

The first verse of Isaiah 4 isn't saying that women who aren't married are a reproach. It is referring the idea that was helped during Isaiah's time that a woman needed to be married and with a child or they were considered less. This of course is not the truth but it was considered truth amongst the people of that time. This going back to chapter 3 is referring to how bad things will be that not only will they be willing to accept bad leaders in government but also a bad deal in marriage. The scripture is not a praise of polygamy or any kind of endorsement.

Genesis 8

 

We see here in Genesis that Noah releases a dove to see the condition of the world. Yeah first releases a raven. The problem of course is a raven doesn't have a problem sitting on a dead body floating in the water so it wouldn't be accurate to discover if it was safe to go out. The dove however would never do such a thing. The dove would land on solid ground or upon a tree. When the dove is finally released the last time it doesn't return. In reality, the dove went about its dove life. Symbolically the symbol of a new life of peace and a new hope seems to fly away. It flies as it were from the time of Noah and the promise of a new land and a new life to the Gospels where it lands upon Jesus the one who will give us new life, peace, and hope.

Luke 3

 

The Dove came down and sat upon Jesus. Note this for tomorrow's reading. The dove is a sign of the spirit and of peace. It now rests on Jesus the one who will save us from destruction and lead us into a new life.

The other thing I note in this chapter is that John the Baptist in his command to those who repented. He told those who had to share not give it all away. He told publicans, tax collectors, not to quit their job but not to overcharge. And he told soldiers basically don't abuse your authority and be content. Many would have been tempted to tell the

m so rich to give it all away, or the publican to quit working for the Romans, or the soldier to quit being a soldier but John doesn't do that he deals with the heart of people's disobedience not with the problems people may have with others status or job description. Consider it.

Psalm 3

 Troubles come and hard times confront us. There are times when those who are against us may seem innumerable. The answer to this is found in Psalm 3, cry out to the Lord. Recognize that he is the one who can and will save us. He will answer from his holy mountain. 

Where is God's holy mountain? It isn't like the Greek or Roman gods in some faraway place. Scripture speaks of Mount Zion, Jerusalem as being God's holy mountain. The significance of this is Jerusalem is a place people could visit. This is a God who isn't far off but with his people. God will answer but he isn't doing it long distance, he's doing it from our midst. This is encouraging to me. 

Genesis 7

 Forty Days and Forty Nights it rained. Then they waited. This is the first of many times the number forty is used in the Bible. There are several concepts associated with the number according to scholars: Completion of God's Promises, Trials and Testing, or transformation going from one thing to another. All of these can be seen but I would note that all of them have one thing in common after the 40 days things/ people are different. 

Also, the forty days come to an end eventually. This is something that we tend to forget when we are in the middle of a problem, this will end. It will. I know there have been times I have felt that way and I know many others but finally the forty days, the forty years (as Israel spent in the wilderness) will end. Take hope the trials don't last forever.  

Genesis 6

 

There are times we think it's hard to live a good life, but Noah lived in a time which makes ours by comparison look like a Sunday School Picnic. At least that is how I read it. Things were bad and getting worse. Personally, I wonder if the world was on a collision with a disaster worse than what people saying might happen today. To go back to what I was saying, It would have been hard to live righteous, and yet, Noah was considered blameless among the people of his time. 

If Noah could walk in such a way that people called him blameless, then why can't we do it today? Yes, there will be those like those who accused Jesus and the apostles with all kinds of lies, but people knew better. There will be false accusations when we try and live as God would have us, but at the end of the day, people will know we were blameless. 

So let's live like that blameless. 

Isaiah 3

 Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that we should "do unto others as we would have them do unto us" (Matthew 7:12). I also remember a saying that says, "Make sure your words and soft and sweet cause you know not which you may have to eat." This goes with Isaiah 3 because God is saying the people will get what they have given to others (3:11). The evil they have done to others comes back on them and it does. The one hope people can have when they have done wrong is to seek God's forgiveness and then to try and make it right. We can't always but even if we do face a problem of our own making if we have sought out God then he can turn it into good eventually (Romans 8:28).

In the meantime, let's not say or do anything which will hurt others. Frist it displeases God and second, we don't want it back. 

Genesis 5

 Well, he almost lived to 70 but not quite but then it was a long time. Oh, he didn't die at 69 it was 969. It must have been, well...

Horrible!

How can a long life be bad? Normally I would say that long life is a great blessing but Methuselah lived in the days before the Flood. He lived in a world that God saw as so bad that the destruction of everything but Noah and his family was the best choice. I might think that for Methuselah, son of Enoch (one of only two people who never saw death because of their righteousness) it was watching everyone around him sink deeper and deeper into depravity. 

Also, there is some indication, from his name, that he may have known when he died that judgment would fall. Did this make him wish for death or fight for life? We don't know. What I do know is that it would NOT have been easy to live a righteous life. 

Luke 2

As I was reading this chapter I remembered a message I preached last year. Below is a portion of it. 

 The Songs of the Season- Hark the Herold Angels Sing

Bethlehem wasn’t an important place. It wasn’t a big city. In fact, it was until modern times very hard to get to. Only those needing to go there to meet family (or for taxes) went there. There were those who might go through trying to avoid Jerusalem and the authorities, which might give you an idea of what they might be like.

It was an agrarian town having farmers (wheat and grain) on the plateau and in the valleys a great place for sheep. The only issue was that shepherds weren’t considered the most reliable people. In fact, they were considered just above a common criminal. The problem there is when people treat you like scum most people start acting like it. 

One scholar studied the history of Bethlehem and figured that the area might have had one of the highest infant mortality rates around (60%). 

When Mary and Joseph first arrived, they couldn’t even find lodging in an inn (3 words for shelter and this was the lowest)

Yet, God came to meet us there. He came, first, to those the world looked down on. 

History of the Hymn

Written by Phillips Brooks: Harvard Professor, Bishop, Evangelist, staunch abolitionist. 

Was known to keep toys in the office and would play with kids. 

Description by Phillip Brooks: 1865 right after the Civil War in Bethlehem. 

“Before dark we rode out of town to the field where they say the shepherds saw the star. It is a fenced piece of ground with a cave in it, in which, strangely enough, they put the shepherds. . . . Somewhere in those fields we rode through, the shepherds must have been. As we passed, the shepherds were still ‘keeping watch over their flocks,’ or leading them home to fold.” writes hymnologist Albert Bailey, Christmas Eve service “conducted in . . . Constantine’s ancient basilica (326 A.D.) built over the traditional site of the Nativity, a cave. The service lasted from 10 P.M. to 3 A.M.!”

The hymn was printed on an informal leaflet in December 1868 and then appeared in The Sunday School Hymnal in 1871.

Its original tune, by Louis H. Redner (1931-1908), a wealthy real estate broker who served as a church organist. He was asked to compose music but still did not have it the night before Christmas Eve (given it long before). On the night before the Christmas Eve service he felt defeated, so he went to bed. During his fretful sleep, it seemed that he heard music.

In England, it is sung to the tune of  a folk tune, “Forest Green”

Its popularity wasn’t that great until it was sung by Elvis.

LIGHT OF THE LYRICS

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie; above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary And gathered all above While mortals sleep, the angels keep Their watch of wondering love O morning stars together Proclaim the holy birth And praises sing to God the King And Peace to men on earth

How silently, how silently The wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts The blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming, But in this world of sin, Where meek souls will receive him still, The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem Descend to us, we pray Cast out our sin and enter in Be born to us today We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell O come to us, abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel

Omitted Stanza:

Where children pure and happy Pray to the blessed Child, Where misery cries out to thee, Son of the undefiled; Where charity stands watching And faith holds wide the door, The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, And Christmas comes once more.

APPLICATION OF OUR HEART

As we look at what happened in Bethlehem, though God sent angels and the shepherds told the news, for most of the rest of the world this act of God happened silently.  The world ignored this little town that no one went to unless they needed to. In fact, it wasn’t until modern Israel developed the road system it wasn’t easy to get to. Like the song pointed out the world just kept going on as if this wonderous thing never happened.

It is the same though for most of us. God moves in us and sometimes we don’t see it and when we do, for most of the people around us it is unnoticed at the time. 

2nd Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come.”

Others may not see but it will show and we will know it.

A woman testified to the transformation in her life that had resulted from her experience in conversion. She declared, "I’m so glad I got religion. I have an uncle I used to hate so much I vowed I’d never go to his funeral. But now, why, I’d be happy to go to it any time."

God wants to bring Christmas not just years ago but today. In each of us. Others may not notice but God is there to be born in us. 

And we need it, we need the good news of the gospel, we need Jesus.

Psalm 2

We need to be free! (?)

Years ago I watched a video that I soon after wished I didn't. It showed a group of young people sneaking through a fence onto a beautiful beach. They were playing and having fun, music playing in the background just set a great scene, then the music stopped and the bombs started dropping. The director didn't make it as explicit as it could have been but it was horrible. Once the last young person had been killed the camera pulled back from the beach. You saw the fence with the hole the now-dead people had crawled through. The camera pulled back a little further and there right beside the hole were the warning signs, "Danger, STAY OUT! US NAVY Live Fire Exercised." There was the skull and cross-bones sign. You then realize the people who entered saw the sign and ignored it thinking they would be okay, it was a beautiful beach after all? or not.

The desire of the nations to be free of God caused me to remember this horrible little video. Often people say that we need to be free, but freedom to do what? When the freedom we desire is freedom from God it will eventually not end well. Destruction comes and the end will not be good. The disobedient and rebellious may enjoy freedom for a time but only for a time. This post is too short to go into why God's commands are always good but disobedience to them always leads to a bad end. 

God actually gives us freedom but it is a freedom to serve him and enjoy all that he has and will have for us. Choosing to be free from God is actually slavery to sin (the thing that will destroy us and those around us, Romans 6).

Genesis 4

 When we get to the last few verses of this chapter something caught my eye. After the death of Abel, there is a new line of children through Seth. Seth has a son after which the scriptures say that people began to call upon God. So what happened to bring this about? 

Seth's son was named Enosh. Enosh according to one of the commentaries I was looking at was taken from a word that meant "weak, faint, or frail." The commentary made the point that this family line realized the frailty of man and therefore knew they needed to call upon God. 

As I think about people today and throughout the Bible and history, it is only when we realize that we can't do it ourselves is when we look to get help. It would be great if people realized this early but like Genesis 4 it is usually after tragedy that people realize they need the help of God. For the Christian, we at one time realized that we couldn't save ourselves and so we asked Jesus to become our Savior and Lord. However, let's not think that we can now do it all on our own. Life is too big for any of us to handle it without help, so let's continue to call upon God and receive help. The amazing thing is God often uses people to help us so receiving help means that we have to let someone else be the hero.

Keil and Delitzsch OT Commentary https://biblehub.com/commentaries/kad/genesis/4.htm

Genesis 3

 Currently, there seems to me to be a big push toward the antihero. This is the guy who isn't a good guy, often selfish, but at the end of the day does the right thing, mostly. I think this comes from the realization that people aren't often a paragon of virtue and therefore are more relateable to us. So what does this have to do with Genesis 3? 

Some have tried to put Satan in this category. Satan isn't the best but he's really not that bad. He did give mankind the freedom to choose for themselves and if you're smart and talented enough you might be able to outsmart him. This is of course completely wrong. It revises the story of the serpent's deception so much it's like saying Hitler was a hero because he brought about an economic and technological increase in the world. Yes, WW2 did those things but sorry Hitler wasn't a hero, and neither is Satan/Devil. Good came because God stepped in and did good but that doesn't make the fall a good thing. I could give other examples but I think I made my point. Satan was a bad guy through and through a murderer and a liar from the beginning (John 8:44). Let's not make him anything else.  

Isaiah 2

 I love the stories of Narnia, Middle-Earth, and even histories of great battles. However, I am also aware that in those stories death and destruction are everywhere. The triumphs are great but so then are the cost. I could go on but those who understand and have seen war may be offended by my feeble attempts to describe it and those who have never imagined it will be sickened by the images. Yes, the stories can be great but the realities are horrible. Which brings me to this text. I long for the day when we can study war, no more. 

Isaiah 1

 Imagine if you will, a wife coming home from work on her anniversary to see a known prostitute sneaking out of her bedroom window. When she gets home her husband yells from the bedroom for her to wait at the front door. A couple of minutes later he walks out with some flowers and a smile. He praises her beauty, hands her the flowers, and says has bought her that new bedroom outfit she's been wanting for this special day. Is she going to be happy with the new furniture, if the money he used to buy it was supposed to go to help her sick mother? Is she going to be happy with the flowers and the smile? Especially when this is the twentieth time she has caught her husband cheating? I think not.

The people of Israel were doing all the things God commanded them, well as far as worship in the temple was concerned. They were worshipping other gods and treating fellow Israelites wrongly. They stole from the poor and ignored the cries of the needy, but they were in church on Sunday (the modern-day equivalent that is). It is no wonder God was disgusted. 

What does this have to do with us today? I have to think that some really beautiful church services are happening around the world today that say they are serving God but are actually making Him sick. My prayer is that I'm not a part of them or do things that would make Him so.  

Luke 1

 There is a lot to see and notice in this chapter. The thing that I noticed again and reminisced about was the fact that Gabriel was angry at Zechariah. Other Biblical characters doubted. Others didn't just doubt an angel but argued against God, the most obvious example is Moses. So what was it that set Zechariah up to be made mute? We could try and guess but that is all they would be guesses. What I do notice is that this imposed silence and then miraculous recovery caught the attention of those around making it very clear that John wasn't just a child born to older parents but a child born with a purpose from God. Thinking about it that way means that God can take our doubts and disobedience and turn them into His glory. Therefore it isn't just the actions of others God can turn to good(Romans 8:28), but even our own missteps if we turn back to God. 

Psalm 1

 The Psalm doesn't just stay to stay away from sin/evil but it also says to delight in the law of the Lord and to be productive. This may sound like a no-brainer but in fact, it isn't. Too often people get caught up in the things they shouldn't do, and they forget to fill their lives with the good things they should be doing. It has been said that nature abhors a vacuum and it isn't just true in nature but in our lives. If all we are doing is avoiding we produce a vacuum in our heart and something will it. If we aren't careful the very things we are trying to keep out of our lives come back in.

To put it another way, it isn't just not going down the wrong way (verse 1) but going down the right path. 

Genesis 2

Can something be both good and bad? Well Yes and No. Gasoline keeps cars moving but if we drink it it will stop us from moving. Gravity is good but if you fall off a building the stop at the bottom might if you survive make you question that fact. This brings me back to Genesis chapter 2. Here God made a garden and called it good but in the midst of it was a tree that God told the man not to eat of. Is the tree bad? Clearly not, as God had previously called all he had made good. So what is it about this tree? The tree wasn't bad it was the misuse of the tree that was bad. It was good when it stood as a reminder that man chose God over himself. It was good but not for food, even if Eve thought it was during the temptation. 

I am reminded today that there are things that are good, but aren't good when they are used in a wrong way. There are things in my life that I have to guard against using in the wrong way. I am tempted like Eve to use it in a way that isn't right. Some of those things I need to avoid entirely others I need to keep for the purpose they are intended. God isn't tempting me, it's my selfish desires that get me into trouble. 

The good news is God is here to help me and so with his help, I can resist the temptations. 

Genesis 1

As I begin this new year and this new or returned journey through the Bible, I notice again that in Genesis chapter one God says that everything is good. The sky, the land, the night, the day, sea creatures and land creatures, even men and women. Did you notice that list? Sky/land, day/night, men/women. In the chapter somethings which we call opposites, God calls good. God is into, yes he created diversity. In the beginning, God created a world of diversity. God called it good.

Later, man will rebel and create a twisted form of diversity. A difference is that God will call sin, but many of the things in our world that may seem opposite are actually good. For example, we call darkness bad. However, God didn't. I could go into the reasons people both educated and not believe that man called darkness bad, but for my observation, God didn't.  Yes, God is against darkness but it isn't the darkness he created, it's the darkness we create. How do we create darkness? In our souls or in the minds of people in a place where there should be light. 

I could go on instead I'm going to summarize and remind myself and those who read, that just because things are different doesn't necessarily make them bad. However, just because they are different doesn't make them good either if God didn't want it that way. Today, I begin by trying to put light, the light of God's Word, and the light of His love into my heart and mind to dispel the darkness God never wanted there.

New Year and Reflection

 

OR NOT!

This week I'm out on vacation. I like to take this time and reflect on the past year and on what is coming in the year ahead. It's an idea I took from author John Maxwell. I doubt I do it as well as he does and I will admit there are times it has been anything but a time of reflection, but that is the plan. I have found if you don't at least try to plan then nothing happens and I want things to happen. 

So what am I saying? Not much today except find time to reflect on your past. Look at the good and the bad. Don't focus on just one or the other but try and be honest, then ask God to help you in the future.

Have a great new year.

CS Areson

PS No, I didn't write this blog this week I did it early so I could be off.