Matthew 7

This chapter is going to conclude Matthew's account of the Sermon on the Mount, and as with the last couple it contains great wisdom from God. The 'Golden Rule' that is widely known in Western society has its origin here, in fact, in verse 12. The parable at the end, about men who built houses on different foundations, is also mentioned pretty often - at least among the Christians I grew up around.

There is one verse here which I have read before, but must confess I do not understand. Matthew 7:6 reads: "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." That seems to me like it could be saying not to share God's truth (what is holy / pearls) with those who are clearly not interested in hearing it... but that seems to run counter to Jesus' instructions later on to 'make disciples of all nations' (Matthew 28:18-20). I suspect there must be some other meaning, and I should make a note to look into it more later - or maybe ask pastor Ryan.

Verses 13 and 14 remind me of a very old book - Pilgrim's Progress. It is hard reading today, being written in pretty old English, but has a lot of cool analogies to the Christian walk... including the idea of narrow vs wide gates as mentioned here in Matthew.

Finally, the warning in verses 15-23 should be a sobering reminder to us all that not everyone who claims to follow Jesus truly does. We should each look at our own lives and see what sort of fruit we are bearing for Him, and at the same time that is one criteria we are given by which to judge those who are true Christians from those who are 'wolves in sheeps clothing'.

1 Samuel 8

And I was right (see previous post if you don't know what I'm referring to). Just like Eli before him, Samuel grows old and his sons don't follow in his footsteps.

A side note here, if I may - you'll note that priests in this time had children. That means that even though in Samuel's case he was dedicated to the Lord from childhood, he still married and had a family. I really think the modern Catholic church needs to rethink their policy of celibate priests: there is no basis for it in Scripture, aside from an opinion statement from the apostle Paul, and I really think it has done them more harm than good.

Back to this chapter, though, we see that Israel as a nation is aware of the wickedness of Samuel's sons. They demand to be given a king instead, and in so doing reject God's rule over them and His appointed judge. Even when God (through Samuel) warns them of what burden a king will bring they insist on it.

I've spent a lot of time pondering various forms of government, and given the belief in God a theocracy really would be the best option. I look forward to that someday, but the Israelites actually had it at one point! Granted, there were still humans in positions of authority - but rather than having to revolt against them if they turned evil God would simply remove them as He did Eli's sons earlier in this book. Don't get me wrong, I think our democratic setup here in the US is better than most anything else available today... but I look forward with anticipation to a day when the Lord will once again rule over His kingdom here on Earth.

Deuteronomy 16

Today's reading reiterates the three yearly festivals that the Israelites were to have, with the added stipulation that they be celebrated 'in the place where the Lord chooses to locate His name' (verses 2, 11, and 16). This concept was introduced by Moses earlier in Deuteronomy, and is somewhat interesting. It seems that God was going to select locations in the Promised Land where festivals and sacrifices were to be carried out; temples, effectively, though perhaps without the fancy buildings and such. I wonder if we will get an account later of where those ended up being; furthermore, I wonder if any are still in use today.

The last paragraph is also cool - it instructs the people to select judges in each town, and indicates that they are to carry out their duties without showing favor or taking bribes. I'm sure that is pretty obvious, given the commandments that have come before it, but it is neat to see God's provision for taking care of day-to-day legal administration.

Exodus 18

This passage was both very cool and somewhat confusing. I really like how Moses' father-in-law comes alongside him and offers advice, which Moses takes despite the fact that he himself is over 80 years old. Delegation of duties here is shown to be a good idea, and it illustrates the fact that as humans we should be careful yo put ourselves under too much stress.

The confusing part, though, is that it seems that Moses' wife and children were not with him in Egypt. Here his father-in-law brings them to him, but I thought for sure that they took the journey with Moses and Aaron to Egypt after the burning bush incident. I may have to go back and re-read that to see if I missed something.