DBRP_Sept15_2014 Hos13-14 Pro25b Mat7a

Yesterday’s reading had this significant prophecy, prefaced by the words that God would not come to totally destroy:

10 For someday the people will follow me.

I, the LORD, will roar like a lion.

And when I roar,

my people will return trembling from the west.

11 Like a flock of birds, they will come from Egypt.

Trembling like doves, they will return from Assyria.

And I will bring them home again,”

says the LORD.

 

Interesting and varied proverbs today include this:

20 Singing cheerful songs to a person with a heavy heart

is like taking someone’s coat in cold weather

or pouring vinegar in a wound.

 

Yesterday’s reading in the second half of chapter 6 dealt with the subject of complete trust in God for all that we need, seeking first the kingdom of God (meaning putting God’s will as your top priority), and not bowing down at the altar of money or material gain.

A part that is often glossed over is this:

“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!

In Biblical culture, an ‘evil’ or ‘bad’ eye was one that is greedy. So this figurative speech actually is right on the topic of this section. Note that our eye will be full of light if we keep our eyes on Jesus— like we read in Philippians 3.

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DBRP_Sept14_2014 Hos11-12 Pro25a Mat6b

In yesterdays reading, as the Lord was pleading with Israel and using agricultural metaphors, He said,

12 I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness,

and you will harvest a crop of love.

Plow up the hard ground of your hearts,

for now is the time to seek the LORD,

that he may come

and shower righteousness upon you.’

 

Today’s highlighted proverb:

11 Timely advice is lovely,

like golden apples in a silver basket.

 

Yesterday’s 3X emphasis was ‘Don’t be like the hypocrites. And we heard the Lord’s prayer. The first line of the Lord’s prayer, ‘hallowed be Thy name’ can be taken (as I did in yesterday’s reading) as a metonymy for the person of the Father, not just his name. Yet we must remember that one of the 10 commandments is to not take the name of the Lord in vain. So there is concern in the Scripture also that God’s name would be held in reverence.

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DBRP_Sept13_2014 Hos9-10 Pro24b Mat6a

In the midst of dire prophecies, Hosea spoke these encouraging words in yesterday’s reading.

3 Oh, that we might know the LORD!

Let us press on to know him.

He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn

or the coming of rains in early spring.”

 

Just one of many neat nuggets of truth in today’s reading:

26 An honest answer

is like a kiss of friendship.

 

Yesterday’s reading had five ‘You have heard it said … But I tell you .. …’ And they included some of the hardest ones for us to obey.

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DBRP_Sept12_2014 Hos6,7,8 Pro24a Mat5b

In yesterday’s reading, Hosea bought back his wife from prostitution. And the Lord drew analogies in his speech to Israel.

 

Favorite verses:

5 The wise are mightier than the strong,a

and those with knowledge grow stronger and stronger.

6 So don’t go to war without wise guidance;

victory depends on having many advisers.

 

Yesterday we read the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, including the famous and memorizable Beatitudes. We have heard the first “You have heard.”

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DBRP_Sept11_2014 Hos3,4,5 Pro23b Mat5a

Beautifully interwoven word plays or metaphors were constructed using the names of Hosea’s three children. And verses of yesterday’s reading, are quoted in Romans 9 and 1Peter 2. The last verse ended:

I will show love

to those I called ‘Not loved.’e

And to those I called ‘Not my people,’f

I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’

And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’”

 

This chapter is much more thematic than chapters 10 through 22. The second half is the words of a father to his son.

 

Today we start the chapters called the Sermon on the Mount, and these are the crowning jewels of Jesus’ teaching. Note the times when Jesus says, “You have heard it said/taught… but I say to you.” These statements are one reason why the people reacted that “Jesus taught with authority.” Note also the times when the Father sees what happens in secret.

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DBRP_Sept10_2014 Hos1-2 Pro23a Mat4

We have already heard that God considers the sin of idolatry to be parallel and just as offensive as a wife being unfaithful to her husband. Hosea is told by God to actually live out this situation. He is told to marry Gomer, a prostitute. Through Hosea, God shows just how ready He is to restore and be reconciled with His wayward people. Hosea prophesied to the Northern kingdom during the same time that Amos, Isaiah, and Micah were prophesying in the Southern kingdom. This was during the reign of Jeroboam the 2nd. He was not a professional prophet trained in a school for prophets, but an ordinary man. I imagine his ministry must have been very lonely.

 

Proverbs don’t always support that being rich is better. Consider v.4:

4 Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich.

Be wise enough to know when to quit.

 

Yesterday we heard of the ministry of John the Baptist, and Matthew is the only Gospel that records Jesus’ reply to John, “This (baptising me) should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.”

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DBRP_Sept09_2014 1Chron29 Pro22b Mat3

Yesterday we heard of the military commanders and officials under David, and the leaders of 13 tribes. Then we heard David’s instructions to Solomon. And it is always amazing to me the detail with which David planned for the temple.

 

Halfway through this chapter we begin a section where more of the proverbs are arranged in short paragraphs. That section begins with these words:

17 Listen to the words of the wise;

apply your heart to my instruction.

18 For it is good to keep these sayings in your heart

and always ready on your lips.

19 I am teaching you today—yes, you—

so you will trust in the LORD.

 

Yesterday we heard of the coming of the learned men from the east. It didn’t say there were just three of them.  And Scripture was fulfilled in Jesus being taken to Egypt, then at the family’s return, their move to Nazareth.

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