For a full description of the (Y4) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Ex. 1
I mentioned a few days back that Israel’s beginning foreshadowed the beginning of Christ’s Church, the Kingdom of God. First there were twelve, then seventy, and from there a multitude. That representation continues in this chapter. The growing family of Israel began to face persecution from the Egyptians, who did not know Joseph. In the same way, the Church faced persecution from those who did not know Christ. The persecution in both cases rendered the same result. “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out…” (Ex. 1:1a).
Luke 4
Another small detail caught my attention this morning. Luke described the devil’s second temptation of Jesus by saying, “And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.” (Lk. 4:5). It was that “moment of time” comment that got me. What the devil showed Jesus was a snapshot. That snapshot revealed a truth, but it was only true for that moment. In that moment, it appeared as though the devil had authority over all those kingdoms and he could give them to whomever he pleased. However, being true for any given moment does not make something true.
That’s the thing we need to remember about time. All of time is merely a snapshot in eternity. Thus, we can’t rely on things that seem true in this moment of time. In order to protect ourselves from the deceptions of time, we need to do as Jesus did. He said, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your god and serve Him only.’” (Lk. 4:8). We need to keep our eyes fixed on the only eternal truth – the God who exists outside of time.
Job 18
Bildad gave us a fine example of incorrectly applying an eternal truth to a moment in time. The Bible tells us the fate of the wicked, but it never puts a timeline on that fate. So yes, the righteous can suffer while the wicked prosper within the deceptive bounds of time. That doesn’t change the truth that the light of the wicked goes out, as Bildad claimed. Yet Job’s friends balked at Job’s assertion of this fact. In their minds, they knew what they knew and how to apply it.
I think maybe that’s what wisdom is. It’s one thing to know the truth. It’s something else, however, to understand how to apply that truth. It makes sense, then, that the fear and knowledge of God is where wisdom starts. There is no other way for time bound beings to understand how to apply eternal truths to everyday moments except through the understanding that comes from the eternal God of truth.