School’s Now In Session.
Last week the Psalm for the Week was Psalm 34:1-10, which taught us about the fear of the LORD. The second half of the Psalm, Psalm 34:11-22, instructs us in living out, and living in, the fear of the LORD.
Propers for 15B:
Proverbs is a genre of Biblical literature known as Wisdom literature. As with the rest of Scripture, Wisdom literature, and thus Proverbs, points to and is fulfilled in Christ in some way, shape, or form. God IS Wisdom. He’s the complete and full standard of Wisdom. God enfleshed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, thus Jesus is God’s walking and talking Wisdom.
In this section of Proverbs Lady Wisdom calls out to people to leave their previous life as she invites any and all people into Her home. The other lady is Folly. Her ways are temptations by the pleasures that the world has to offer. Lady Folly, however, is like the spider’s web. Once the prey is lured in and trapped, there’s no way out.
This section praises the “simple.” “Prov. 9:1–6, 13–18 conclude the larger collection of Prov. 1–9. … Here Wisdom appears as a hostess who sends out her servant girls with invitations to a great feast in her new house (vv. 1–6). Once again, the invited guests are the “simple and inexperienced” (v. 4). If they accept Wisdom’s invitation, they acquire life (v. 6). By contrast, Foolishness merely mimics Wisdom (vv. 13–18); she too invites the “simple and inexperienced” into her house (v. 16). She is herself, however, completely characterized by “foolishness” and “ignorance.” Hence anyone who enters her house will remain “simple and inexperienced,” and will enter the sphere of death (v. 18) as the result of a failed life.”[1]
The Proverbs reading ties in with Psalm 34:11-22 in that Lady Wisdom is God’s Wisdom teaching His people His ways for Christian living.
OR
This part of Joshua is pretty familiar to many Christians. At least verse 15 is familiar. Many Christian homes have a picture are some sort of artwork that says As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The conquests have taken place. Yhwh has seen them through thick and thin as they have now entered the promised land. Joshua recounts everything that Yhwh has done for His people, including calling Abraham from a life of false gods to following Yhwh. Through Abraham God created for Himself a people and promised to be with them always—through thick and thin. God has a covenant renewal with the people here in chapter 24. Choose this day whom you will serve. Will you serve the false gods of the past? Or will you serve Yhwh alone as your God? The answer seems obvious: We will serve the LORD. However, putting this into daily practice is another matter. This was a problem back then, and it’s still a problem for God’s people today. We all need to continue in God’s classroom as we learn to serve the LORD.
The reading for today begins at 5:6. The reading for last week ended at 5:2. So, what happened to 5:3-5? For those who might be inclined to read these, it can be disturbing, and quite frightening, when the Christian looks at his or her life and discovers that the sins listed there are a part of “my life too. Does this mean I’m excluded from the Kingdom of Christ and God?” No. It doesn’t. Paul is writing to Christians. He’s writing to you. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-9 that you are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and so you are. Through faith in Jesus, God has made you a part of His Kingdom. No matter what sins we’ve committed, God has forgiven them. You are very precious to God, and He wants you to know that.
This latter part of Ephesians zeros in more on how the Christian is to live out his faith. Change happens in the life of the Christian, and Paul now describes what this change looks like. The old life is now in the past. Sexual immorality, filthy talk, covetousness, and so forth, are the ways of our old life before Christ came into our lives. Now that Christ lives in us by His Spirit, changes happen. Perfectly and absolutely? No. We are still sinners who give into temptations. Does that mean, then, that we should simply rollover, give up, and strive not to live God-pleasing lives? Again, NO. How we live actually matters to God. We cannot turn Christian living and good works into an rewards-punishment schema. In other words, live right and you’ll be blessed. Live wrongly and you’ll be cursed. Live right and you’ll get to heaven. Live wrongly and you’ll be damned. This is not what Paul is teaching here. He’s teaching that, now that you already have this gift of eternal life and God has made you a participant in His Kingdom, let’s now get on with Kingdom living.
John 6:51-69
Today’s reading in John 6 brings to a conclusion Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse. We’ve heard this in church for the last four weeks.
Many of the disciples (there were way more than twelve by this time) wanted to follow Jesus. After all, they has witnessed Him healing their sick, blind, deaf, dumb, and lame. Many of them were personally fed with the miracle of multiplying the fish and loaves of bread. They had in their minds that this Jesus is our personal walk-in clinic and drive through restaurant! “Of course, I want to follow Jesus and take part in all of this.”
Jesus then goes into His Eucharistic explanation of what real life for people entails. It sounds like cannibalism to them, but it’s not. On the other side of the Holy Communion coin, Jesus is not teaching a spiritized teaching of the Eucharist either. Jesus is really and truly present in, with, and under the bread and the wine.
Everyone leaves in ignorance. Everyone that is, except for the Twelve. They’re ready to learn more. The Teacher is right there in front of them. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” And so the never-ending class continues to this very day.
COLLECT OF THE DAY
Almighty God, whom to know is everlasting life [Ps 34:12], grant us to know Your Son, Jesus, to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow His steps in the way that leads to life eternal; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (B73)
In this Prayer for the week we pray for knowledge. To know God is everlasting life. As a Christian, you already have this eternal life. We pray in this prayer that God would help us to grow in our daily faith that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Not only that, but we pray that we would follow in His steps. Following means learning and growing, which will not end until that last nail is in the coffin.
[1] Mosis. Botterweck, G. Johannes, Helmer Ringgren, and Heinz-Josef Fabry, eds. Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. Revised; Accordance electronic edition, version 1.4. 15 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006. 167
A Redeker Respite 