OT -- Deuteronomy 16:1-17:20
How sad it made me to read chapter 17:14-20. Moses could see the dangers of being king. I am sure that he would have liked his sons to have had powerful position and probably did what he could to encourage them. But he knew that eventually, the people would demand a king and he could see the pitfalls.
NT – Luke 9:7-27
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Psalm 72
Could this psalm come at a more appropriate place? For David was a good king. He loved the Lord. He tried to do God’s will. He was a man and a sinner. But he admitted his problems, asked for forgiveness, not spin, and moved on. He was praying this prayer for his son, who would succeed him. And for a while, Solomon was a good king. But he obviously did not write Moses’ admonition on his scroll and read it daily. For he had too many horses, too many wives, and way, way, way too much gold and silver. And eventually, his foreign wives corrupted him and the kingship began its decline.
Proverbs 12:8-9
Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food.
This one is all the rage right now. The movie The Help has just come out on DVD and it is sitting beside my TV waiting on me to finish this blog post to come watch.
I grew up in Atlanta. We had ‘help’. Everyone I knew had ‘help’.
I am still listening to The Winds of War by Herman Wouk (in my defense, it is a very, very big book) and everyone there, even lowly lieutenant wives like Janice Henry have ‘help’.
Nowadays, no one has ‘help’. Oh, you might have a cleaning service. And maybe a company to take care of your lawn. But no one has a Sarah or a Betty who came most every day, cleaned, took care of the children, washed and ironed and cooked. Why is that? Why don’t I have help? Okay, my house is smaller than my mother’s and I have half the number of children. But I work outside the home and she did not. I think that is a clear tradeoff.
What about the flip side of that proverb? I know people like this. Especially now after all the fallout from the economic crisis. Nice cars, nice house. Big fat debts.
What do I do when I am feeling less than? Do I look for a servant, someone to be with me? Or do I try to fill my world with empty things and glossy touches? Do I try to be that servant? Or am I too busy impressing others with how ‘okay’ everything is.
Would anyone prefer the nobody status unless it is counterbalanced to the no food? Truthfully, I had never put them as opposites.
It is raining here this evening. For this, I give great thanks as all of us have red, itchy eyes and sneeze constantly. We are now 1/4 of the way through the Bible. Keep studying, keep meditating. May your day be filled with peace, joy and love.
The feeding of the 5,000 is one of the most memorable of the Jesus' many miracles. Every kid who has gone through Vacation Bible School has learned the story. The part of the story that I find really interesting is the beginning when Jezus tells the disciples to feed the people first. Of course, they can't. And they have good reasons too. They are out in the middle of nowhere. They have no money to buy the food and o one to buy it from. Very logical. Very reasonable.
ReplyDeleteSo why does Jesus ask them to feed the people? He knows that they can't do it. I think that is exactly why he asked them. Because they couldn't do it but He could.
And what does that mean for us now? What are we supposed to do with this memorable story?
I think the interesting part is again the request. What is Jesus asking you to do in your life that you have absolutely no way to accomplish? And your reasons would be perfectly logical and reasonable. There would not be enough money to do what he asking you to do. There is no one to help even if you have the money.
I don't know what it is but at some point in each one of our faith journey Jezus asks us to do something that is impossible without him. That is as daunting as feeding 5,000 people in the middle of nowhere. For each one of us it is something different. Something that only he can do. But he needs us to be faithful and do our part like the disciples did their part so he accomplish a miracle.
I am going to spend some time in prayer and think about this. How about you?