For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Acts 6
List the qualifications required for those selected to “wait on tables.” Would you require such qualifications for a duty like this? Why or why not? Waiting on tables…though it says it there in the text plain as day, I don’t think I have ever considered this quite in that way before. I always thought of it more as managing food distribution or taking care of the widows’ needs. Waiting on tables sounds so much more menial. But doesn’t that just fit right in with God’s “upside-down kingdom”? The first will be last, the greatest will be least, and “even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45).
So in many ways, the menial tasks are of more importance than the great ones. Everybody wants to do great things. But who wants to wash feet or wait tables? Yet we know that “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much” (Luke 16:10). It takes a true servant’s heart to do such menial things with unbiased joy and passion. Just the kind of heart God desires. You would need men “full of the Spirit and wisdom” to ensure that such tasks are done as they should be. The question for me, then, is, would I be qualified to wait tables?
Ex. 9-10
What qualities of (a) Pharaoh, (b) Moses and (c) God are revealed in their actions here? Every time I read about these plagues I am amazed at the grip of pride on the human heart. And it wasn’t just Pharaoh. Before the plague of hail, God gave ample warning for people to protect themselves and their livestock. “Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. But those who ignored the word of the LORD left their slaves and livestock in the field.” (Ex. 9:21). Seriously?!? This was the seventh plague! God’s word had already come to pass six times prior to this. There was no reason at all to think this time would be any different. Yet there were still those whose pride would not allow them to listen. Their defiance cost them dearly.
As incredulous as it seems reading about it, I still see it all around me today. People readily buy into obvious lies because to do otherwise seems to them to be too close to acknowledging God’s truth. People do not want to admit that there is something greater than they are. They do not want to admit that their ways or their desires are wrong. They want to make up their own ‘truth’ and be their own ‘god’. Their defiance will not stand. As He did with Pharaoh, God will use their pride to lift up His high and holy name so that all will know that He alone is God.