Our reading plan is this one: http://ift.tt/1SvMhN8
Also available here: http://ift.tt/174W4G3
(There are commentary and devotionals associated with the readings, but I am skipping those and, obviously, providing my own commentary here on the blog.)
Today’s reading:
- Job 35–37
- Proverbs 4:1–9
- Matthew 24:1–31
Any quotations are taken from English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2011
Writer’s note: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of anyone else associated with Christianity Without The Insanity or anyone or any church or other organization apart from Christianity Without The Insanity.
I got a little behind again, but I’m pressing on! Again, I’ll try to go back and catch up, but for now I’m just moving on. Here we go!
Job 35–37
Job is still being lectured by his so-called friends. Elihu even puts himself in the place of God to address job. “Let me say something on behalf of God” he says…
He even basically says “I’ve read about this, I’ve studied, so I know what I’m talking about…”
And on the one hand, it seems that Elihu is glorifying God, his words are very complimentary, very ‘churchy’ and ‘worshipful’. But at the same time he’s back-handing Job and saying “hey! God is great! But you must suck because He’s mad at you.”
Sound familiar to you?
I just wrote a blog post here and I spoke about this exact thing. “Hey, I know God! You, however, there must be something wrong with you because your life sucks. Get right with God!” One of these days I’m going to tell one of those guys “f*** you!” Probably sooner rather than later.
Proverbs 4:1–9
Solomon continues his love letter about Wisdom. He writes about it as if it’s a person. It’s all very poetic.
I enjoy the proverbs. But Solomon does tend to ramble….
Matthew 24:1–31
Jesus talks a lot about the end times.
The end of what? The end of the world? The end of time? The Universe? The end of the Jews? The end of that age the Apostles were living in?
So many many MANY discussions on this. I’m not going to throw my 2 cents in with any of the end-time preachers.
But to be honest, I don’t think this section is talking about the end of the world. He starts with talking about how the temple buildings were be destroyed. “One stone will not stand on another”. We know this prediction came true. In the later part of the first century the Romans finally tried to put an end to the religion of the Jewish people. The temple was destroyed. And literally every stone was thrown down. I’ve heard it said that it happened that way because first they burned the temple, which we know had a lot of gold in it. The gold melted and ran everywhere. So they broke all the stones apart to get at the gold that had run between the cracks.
In the next part of our reading, the disciples ask him about “the end”. I think He’s talking about the same thing. He talks about his followers being persecuted. And we know that came to pass too, because the same Romans that tried to wipe out the Jewish religion did the same for Christians. (And basically anyone who didn’t worship the emperor of Rome).
But then we get to verse 29…. what is he talking about here? Still part of things that (to us) are history, or is this something else?
This is one of those that I just shrug and say “I don’t know”. And guess what? It’s OK to admit you don’t know.
