WARNING
In reviewing Israel’s history, the Psalmist especially focuses on their inexcusable disobedience. Our verse speaks of the patience of God and the punishment from God upon the Israelites.
Patience of God – “So I gave them over.” This is a tragic statement for to be given up by God is the worst thing that can ever happen to a person. Although God is a God of grace and is exceedingly long-suffering, His patience does have its limits. Further, the apostle Paul speaks of the limits of God’s patience when he writes about God giving up on sinners (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28). Repentance is always necessary to avoid facing the consequences of sin.
Punishment from God – “I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels.” Some of the worst punishment that God can inflict upon a person is to let that person have his own way. When we continually rebels against God and refuses God’s way, sometimes God will let us have our own way. God’s commands and orders are always for our good. When we rebel against these commands and orders, we are turning away from God’s best; and if we insist on rebelling, God will simply let us have our way, do our own thing, and walk in our own counsels. Of course, the end result will be disastrous. If we do not want to abide by God’s moral standard, He may let us live according to our moral standard; and that will be punishment of the worst kind.
(Adapted from Butler Daily Bible Reading)
Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)
Quotation of the Week
“To walk in our own way is to run away from God!”
Anonymous
Word Study
Twist (distort)
In 2 Peter 3:16 we read, “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist (distort) to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures!” (NKJV).
Twist (distort) is the Greek word strebloō (στρεβλόω = streb-lo'-o). This verb is used only here in the New Testament and means to wrench, to torment, to twist or to distort. A stréble was a winch, an instrument that produced torture by twisting or pulling one’s limbs out of joint. Thus one meaning of the verb strebloō was to put to the rack.
In Classical in Greek strebloō means to hoist or to tighten with a windlass or screw. In the Septuagint the word is used in a figurative sense to express God’s displeasure or punishment upon the froward or perverse. The figurative meaning is also used in the New Testament.
Figuratively, strebloō means to pervert and metaphorically it means to pervert as one who wrests or tortures language to a false sense. Peter thus chose a singularly graphic word to picture the tortuous perversion of the Scriptures. Further, the word is in the present tense which indicates continuous action. It was the continual practice of the “untaught and unstable” to take Paul’s statements and twist them like victims on a rack to force them to say what they wanted them to say.
Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus
Old Testament Prophecy – Messiah’s enemies took counsel to put Him to death (Psalm 31:13)
New Testament Fulfillment – Matt. 27:1; John 11:53
Did You Know…
The Lord Jesus knew the Hebrew Scriptures well. While He quoted most often from the Book of Psalms, He also quoted from many other Books. Deuteronomy comes in second for the book most often quoted, with Isaiah and Exodus ranking third and fourth respectively. He references every Book of the Pentateuch, plus several of the prophets.
Bible Quiz
What is another word used in the Old Testament for “Prophet?”
**Answer to last week’s trivia: According to the Book of Acts, what was Dorcas famous for? Doing good and helping the poor (“good works and charitable deeds” - Acts 9:36).
Everyday Expressions Alluded to in the Bible
"Blind faith”
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1 NKJV).
“Blind faith” - The expression “blind faith” carries the idea of believing without seeing. Many people define faith as some wistful hope or premonition that something good is going to happen in their endeavor. But the faith the Bible speaks about is a belief in the Word of God as being true and believing it to the extent that you act according to the Word. Faith is more than a mental assent that the Bible is true. It is the conviction that God will keep His Word.
Did You Know – Christian History
Samuel Gobat was born January 26, 1799 in born at Crémines, Switzerland. He was a Swiss Calvinist who became an Anglican missionary in Africa and was the Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem from 1846 until his death.
Gobat studied at the Basel Mission Institute, the Missionary Institute in Paris, and the CMS training institution in Islington, London, England.
Gobat worked energetically and to some degree successfully at building rapport with the Orthodox Coptic Church. In 1836 he was forced by poor health to return to Europe. He was subsequently sent to Malta, where, between 1839 and 1845, he supervised the translation of the Bible into Arabic and served as vice-president of the Malta Protestant College. In 1846, Gobat accepted the position of bishop of Jerusalem to do mission work and protect Protestants.
In addition to his several publications, and the Arabic translation of the Bible, Gobat left behind thirty-seven Palestinian schools with a combined enrollment of 1,400 students, twelve indigenous churches, and several hospitals. Further, many Palestinians were converted to Christ. His wife Marie worked by his side, cheerfully opening her home to all who passed through and pouring all her energy into helping manage the schools and provide for their needs.
The two faced the possibility of martyrdom when a massacre by the Druse left hundreds of Christians dead in Lebanon and Damascus. They also took harsh criticism for accepting converts from among the Orthodox into their Protestant churches. Gobat explained that these people had been driven out of their traditional churches when they tried to study the Bible. Several British bishops declared their complete confidence in him.
Gobat continued in fair health until his death on May 11, 1879 in Jerusalem, Israel. He was buried at Mount Zion.
A Little Humor
A woman wrote the following testimonial for a life insurance company: “On September 8, my husband took out a policy. In less than a month, he drowned. I consider insurance a good investment.”
Thought Provoking Church Sign
“Christ became a curse for us to remove sin’s curse from us!”
