For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
John 11
I don’t really understand Jesus’ response to His disciples in verse 9. The disciples balked at Jesus’ suggestion to return to Judah because the Jews there had tried to kill Him. Now, I fully understand that we need to obey God, trusting His guidance even when human reasoning tells us it doesn’t make sense to do so. Connecting this message to Jesus’ response, however, is a bit fuzzy for me. I can make the case for walking in the daytime being obedience to God. Walking at night, of course, would then be following human reasoning. But why the twelve hours of daylight question? Some say that is a reference to Jesus’ appointed time on earth. I suppose the thought there is that the Jews would not kill Him until His appointed time came to an end. That doesn’t present one cohesive thought with His entire answer for me, though.
Since there are 24 hours in a day, I wonder if His mention of 12 hours of daylight was meant to say that we have an “equal” choice. I mean equal in availability; twelve hours each of daylight or night. We can just as readily choose to follow God’s way as we can to follow our own. So Jesus’ establishes that fact to then go on and point out that though these two choices have equal availability, they most certainly do not have equal outcome. That actually makes a lot more sense to me. And it seems that Thomas got the message. His statement tells me that, in his mind, a return to Judea meant certain death. Even so, he chose to lay his life down and follow Jesus. He chose to walk in the daylight
Zeph. 1-3
Reading through Zephaniah reinforces to me the cyclical nature of the Bible’s message. His description of the LORD’s judgment on the earth is very reminiscent of the time of Noah. And listening to the Bible Project’s video on Zephaniah sent my mind all the way back to the Garden of Eden. So what I see is that in the beginning God created children for Himself. He set them aside in a special place where they could be together. They turned away from Him, however, and God had to cast them out of His presence. Ultimately, that led to God’s judgment on the whole earth. He wiped out all the evil, saving a small remnant of His faithful ones.
Out of all of that, we see the cycle repeat again. God set apart one man and woman, Abraham and Sarah, to create children for Himself. He put them in a special place where they could be together. However they, too, turned from Him and God had to cast them out of His presence. Their exile ultimately led to God’s judgment on all the nations. Yet once again He spared a small remnant of His faithful ones.
I believe these cycles are a subset of the overall whole. That is, they give us a glimpse of the bigger picture of humanity. God created children for Himself. These would be any throughout time who put their faith in God’s Promise. But because, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way” (Is. 53:6a), we are living outside the special place He has set aside for us. Still, He is with us in our exile. And He promises a Day of Judgment on the whole earth when He will purify the world of all evil so that we, His faithful remnant, will turn away from Him no more.
Ps. 147
The psalmist lists many blessings for which to praise the Lord. Select one or two that are especially meaningful to you and take some time to tell God thanks! I have two thoughts from this Psalm this morning. The first comes from verse one, which says, “how pleasant and fitting to praise Him!” Those two descriptions jumped out at me. Praising God is fitting. There is no more appropriate response from someone who has received God’s blessings than praise. There is no question He is deserving. The word “pleasant” tripped me up just a bit, though. I have to stop and ask myself if I really see it that way. But I can easily see that it should be. I should desire to praise my glorious God; lifting Him up should bring me joy. And if those things are true, why am I not in constant praise to my God?
The second thought came when I read that God calls the stars by name. That made me think how much love there is in a name. Which made me think about the current trend among certain groups of people to change their names from those given by their parents. And then I thought, can you imagine telling God that you don’t want to be called by the name He lovingly gave you anymore? If that doesn’t reveal the rebellious pride in that movement, I don’t know what does!