Resource Manager Posted March 26, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2021 26 March 2021 Numbers 7Proverbs 4Luke 18 “THAT YOU MAY GAIN INSIGHT” Solomon’s proverbs in today’s reading of chapter 4, reflect on how his father David had taught him. “When I was a son with my father … he taught me and said to me, Let your heart hold fast to my words; keep my commandments and live; get wisdom.” [Proverbs 4:3-5] As we started the chapter we noticed an interesting word, the word “insight” – “Hear, O son a father’s instructions and be attentive, that you may gain insight” [Proverbs 4:1] Other modern versions render it as gaining “good sense” – looking “inside” a matter. How do you do that? How deeply do we think through the decisions we make, weighing up all the pros and cons? Where do we get our “scales” from so as to ‘weigh up’ the major decisions in our lives? Often they begin with small things! Do we consider God’s principles – or are we totally motivated by human desires? “Hear my son,” Solomon continues, “and accept my words that the years of your life may be many” [Proverbs 4:10] He adds, “be attentive to my words … Keep them within your heart … keep your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life … ponder the path of your feet then all your ways will be sure” [Proverbs 4:20,21,23,26] But the tragedy is that Solomon in his old age failed to complete the preparation of his son Rehoboam for the kingship, nor is there any indication that he had a godly wife who played her part in training the next generation. But remember this, in drawing lessons from the Bible we are instructed just as much by the failures, as by the successes. So many take hardly any notice of instructions of how to operate the machines they purchase and only look at them when they find they are not working properly, if at all. But that approach is fatal in human relations, when they break down they are often extremely difficult to repair. Of course, the relationship that matters above all else is our relationship with God and with His Son, and that needs to be a relationship which grows and glows. Look at Proverbs 4:18, “But the path of the righteous is like the dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” So “ponder the path of your feet then all your ways will be sure” [Proverbs 4:26] Reading the Bible every day is an essential part of walking that path.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted March 27, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2021 27 March 2021 Numbers 8; 9Proverbs 5Luke 19 "BUT NOW THEY ARE HIDDEN FROM YOUR EYES" We read in Luke 19 of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the back of a colt when “the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! …” [Luke 19:37,38] But “when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” [Luke 19:41,42] Tragedy was coming on Jerusalem “because you did not know the time of your visitation.” [Luke 19:44] They had marvelled at “all the mighty works they had seen” [Luke 19:37] but soon “ … the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus” [Matthew 27:20] Yet only a day or two before, “all the people were hanging on his words” [Luke 19:48] How two faced is human nature, so often their commitment has no substance, no depth, and this is a warning for those of all ages who claim belief in Jesus. In today’s chapter of Proverbs [Proverbs 5] is a warning that is all too applicable in today’s grossly permissive atmosphere. Beware lest we be as fickle as those who praised Jesus with their loud voices. Solomon asks, “Why should you be intoxicated my son with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? For a man’s (and woman’s) ways are before the eyes of the LORD and he ponders all his paths” [Proverbs 5:20,21] Today, is this fact “hidden from your eyes?” The reality of this is hidden from nearly every eye today. Solomon repeats the point in Proverbs 15:3 “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and on the good.” The greatest tragedy is when those who make an outward profession of serving the Lord are blind to this fact. If “he (or she) is held fast in the cords of his sin” [Proverbs 5:22], the result is they are “at the brink of utter ruin” [Proverbs 5:14]. Any that are in this situation, must appeal to the Lord from their hearts to unbind the cords that hold them fast and utter “the prayer of faith” of which James writes [James 5:15] and not be ashamed to ask others to pray with and for them.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted March 27, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2021 28 March 2021 Numbers 10Proverbs 6Luke 20 "THOSE WHO ARE CONSIDERED WORTHY" In one sense, no man or woman can be “considered worthy” by God to be in his kingdom “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” [Romans 3:23] . But we have that marvellous chapter on FAITH in Hebrews 11, men and women who demonstrated their faith by what they did in serving God and doing his will. Abraham and Moses are outstanding examples of this, but remember Hebrews 11:29 in that chapter; “By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land” – what a challenge to their faith as they stepped out although they saw the water towering on either side! This was their baptism, said Paul – see 1 Corinthians 10:2 But we are about to read in Numbers of how most of them failed to maintain their faith and “fell” in various ways in the wilderness. Maintaining faith is essential to being “considered worthy.” This brings us to what Jesus said to the Sadducees, as we read today in Luke 20. They refused to believe in a resurrection. In some ways they were like the modern humanists. They posed to Jesus a story of a woman who had 7 husbands in succession, which all died, so if there is a resurrection, they asked, who would be her husband “for the seven had her as wife.” [Luke 20:33] “Jesus said to them, ‘The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons (children) of the resurrection” [Luke 20:35,36] We noted his final words in correcting the Sadducees; he said God “is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to him” [Luke 20:38] If we “live to him” as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did, then we, like them, will not die, but sleep a timeless sleep to awake (instantly, not having sensed the passage of time) “equal unto the angels.” So let us walk with an ever stronger faith as we travel through the wilderness that is the world scene today - conscious of the failure of those who “by faith … crossed the Red Sea” in baptism - but their wilderness destroyed their faith.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted March 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2021 29 March 2021 Numbers 11Proverbs 7Luke 21 "BUT WATCH YOURSELVES ... " Today’s 21st chapter of Luke is very familiar. Can some words become so familiar causing one’s thoughts to simply travel along well-trodden paths and maybe miss some of the intriguing “flowers” along the way? Imagine you were reading this chapter for the first time! Luke 21:20-24 were definitely fulfilled about 40 years after Jesus spoke them when the massive structure of the Temple was destroyed [Luke 21:6] and the nation ceased to exist. Words that always catch our attention is that “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” [Luke 21:24] In Luke 21:29-32 we read of the budding of God’s fig tree, Israel [Joel 1:7] and Jesus’ words, “When you see these things taking place you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.” How long is a generation? We will soon read in Numbers that “the LORD’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was gone.” [Numbers 32:13] But that does not conclusively prove that the period of a generation is just 40 years. We read in Psalm 90 that “the years of our life are seventy …” [Psalm 90:10] So from when Israel was again established as a nation in 1948 for the first time since AD70, is the climax to come at the most 70 years from then? But the Jews did not possess the old city of Jerusalem until 1967, so could that be the starting date? Many have exercised their minds greatly on the dates in Daniel 12 and watch movements among the nations of the Middle East. But Jesus says, “Watch yourselves” – look at the particular points he makes, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.” [Luke 21:34] The hearts of many people around us are weighed down for many reasons such as the tottering uncertainty of the money ‘God.’ Let our Master’s words in Luke 21:36 be ones we really take to heart, “stay awake at all times, praying you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Strength? How strong is your faith? Read 1 Corinthians 16:13-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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