1 Chronicles 11:1-12:18, Acts 28:1-31, Psalms 9:1-12, Proverbs 19:1-3
Today is the 11th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian. It is wonderful to be around the Global Campfire together and it’s nice to be able to take the next step forward together in the Scriptures, and that leads us back into the book of first Chronicles. We’ve been reading genealogies in the book of first Chronicles for several days now. We’re coming out the other side of that. Meanwhile, we’ve been traveling along with the apostle Paul on his way to Rome to stand trial before the Emperor and they have been tossed by the waves and stranded for a couple of weeks in the open sea, but they have shipwrecked and landed up on an island and we’ll find out the rest of that story as we conclude the book of Acts today. But first, first Chronicles chapter 11 verse 1 through 12 verse 18.
Commentary:
Okay. A couple of things for us to consider. First let’s look at the book of Acts. We’ve been on this journey across the ocean with Paul for several days as we recounted his journey to Rome, after appealing to Caesar. Paul eventually ends up in Rome today after a visit to the island of Malta. And there’s this interesting seen that this snake attaches itself to Paul’s hand and he shakes it into the fire but that makes all of the Maltese people go, oh, he’s a murderer, he’s escaped this far, but he has found his judgment, right? And, so, they’re waiting for Paul to kind of keel over and convulse and die and he doesn’t. He’s fine. And, so, then they start thinking…well…then he’s a god, which is not the first time that they’ve thought or that people have thought this about Paul. And such an interesting story there on the beach of Malta. But as we’ve read in the book of Acts eventually, they set sail again and Paul does arrive in Italy and does make his way to the city of Rome, where he begins to do what he always does everywhere. He goes to the synagogue, begins to speak to the Jewish people, share the story of how it is that he got there. And this effectively brings to a close, the Acts of the apostles, the book of Acts, sort of the first reverberation of what happened next after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. And we saw that mostly through the lens of the apostle Peter and then we met Saul who became the apostle Paul and traveled on his missionary journeys. So, tomorrow as we take the next step forward, we will be moving into completely different territory, completely different genre of literature in the New Testament and we’ll talk about that when we get there tomorrow, but it’s really interesting how the book of Acts ends. The last sentence in the book of Acts is, and no one tried to stop him. This is the apostle Paul who had been on missionary journeys where it seemed like everyone was trying to stop him. And when he went back to Jerusalem even those who work for him were trying to stop him from…from what he felt was obedience by the leading of the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem where he was under arrest and remained under arrest and even here now that we’ve landed in Rome is still under arrest. So, he’s lost a lot of freedom but in fact gained a lot of protection and has been no less on mission once he was captured than he was when he was freely moving around. In fact, it almost seems like after he was captured, he was able to share the good news with far more prominent people than he would ever have been able to associate with in any way. And, so, when Paul gets to Rome he is awaiting trial before the Emperor and it is a life and death decision but he’s given a certain amount of freedom. Some people are able to come and speak with him and he is able to share the good news which he does, which is the last verse of the book of Acts. For the next two years Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him boldly proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ, and no one tried to stop him, which brings to a conclusion the story of what immediately happened after Jesus left.
Then in the book of Proverbs we had three verses today, three sentences, all speaking unfiltered wisdom straight at us. We can just let it kinda blow by - nice sayings, stuff to remember -or we can look at it straight back in the face just like it’s looking at us in the face and determine whether we will heed the voice of wisdom or not. So, let’s just look at these three verses, just for a second. Better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and a fool. So, what’s being said here? Honesty is better than riches or another way to say it is more valuable than riches and dishonesty for false gain is foolish. Better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and a fool, which leads us to examine what our motivations are. What are we going for and what are we willing to do to get it is really the heart of the matter? And certainly, something to consider at every major decision in our lives. And then verse number two, enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes. And that is pretty self-explanatory. Haste makes mistakes. Getting all excited about something, without actually understanding what it is you’re truly excited about can cause you, me, all of us to become hasty and impatient in our choices. Haste makes mistakes. So, what is the lesson here? Slow down and get all the details before you run off and get involved in anything. Again, practical advice and wisdom, echoing over thousands of years into our laps and it’s just as relevant now as ever. And then finally, people ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord. Wow! Like, that is a big bold statement that is unbelievably true. We navigate our lives. We consult the Lord. We go our own way. We consult the Lord. We make our own decisions. We’re back and forth. It leads him where we don’t want to go and then we just can’t look in the mirror and acknowledge that we navigated here and so we blame it on the Lord as if He led us somewhere that is not where we wanted to be or where we should be. So, what’s the lesson here in this sentence? God is not to blame for what we choose to do. Or as the proverb says, people ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord. Three sentences with three profound lessons in them for us to walk the path of wisdom. May we do just that brothers and sisters. We need to walk in wisdom more than ever before.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, we invite You to come into that as we become aware of Your presence that is always leading us on the path of wisdom and is always leading us toward the narrow path that leads to life. It’s just that few You choose to find it. And, so, often we find ourselves among the majority making our own choices and trying to wear You like a cape like Your some kind of magic power that’s gonna make everything work out that we decide to do rather than consulting You and obeying where You lead. Forgive us for blaming You for things that we’ve created. Forgive us for our foolishness. Forgive us for our dishonesty. Come and lead us into all truth we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Coming soon…