March 10 ▪ Day 69

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 13:3
Exodus 7–8
I John 1–3
Psalms 69

Verse Focus (Proverbs 13:3)

Those who guard their lips preserve their lives,
     but those who speak rashly will come to ruin.

Meditation

Proverbs 13:3 is yet another proverb that looks at the power of the tongue. As the NRSV puts it, “Those who guard their mouths preserve their lives; those who open wide their lips come to ruin.” Only a few days ago we were talking about rash words. Then the contrast was between healing and harm; today the contrast is between self-preservation and ruin. Yet another very good reason to control our tongues!

But let’s think about what “guarding” our mouths means. Obviously, we know it means to be careful with what you say. Think and think again before you speak. Control yourself and don’t let yourself be so overcome by your feelings that you speak hastily. Consider the possible consequences. Filter the words out if they are not kind, uplifting, helpful or healing. But the verb “guard” gives us some additional insight. We guard doors and places to keep people from getting out. In the same way, we must guard our speech so that unwanted words do not get out.

As I consider this proverb, I realize that I have interpreted it entirely in terms of communication. But there is another possibility. The NRSV translation is very close to what the Hebrew-English interlinear says — “He who guards his mouth preserves his life, [but] he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction to.” Mouth and lips: this proverb could be talking about food, warning us against gluttony. Not only must we guard against rash words getting out, but we also guard against what might come in. Those who “open wide” their lips to whatever looks good — sweets, second helpings, snacks and more — will soon live to regret that lack of self-control.

Father God, thank you for this proverb and the warnings it gives us. Please help us to guard our mouths — both in terms of what we eat and what we say. May we not come to ruin through lack of self-control. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

As Exodus 7 begins, God answers Moses’ question about why Pharaoh would listen to him. The LORD tells Moses that he will be like “God” to Pharaoh, and Aaron will be Moses’ prophet. Indeed, in the interactions that follow, it is Aaron who performs the various signs and wonders, turning his staff into a snake and holding his staff over the Nile to turn the water into blood. I don’t think I paid attention to this before — I had envisioned Moses himself as the one performing the signs and wonders.

Again, the LORD warns Moses that Pharaoh will be resistant. The Israelites will not leave Egypt until God multiplies his wonders and performs “great acts of judgment” against Pharaoh and all the Egyptians.

So, Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and say everything God commanded them to say. Aaron throws down his staff and it turns into a snake. So Pharaoh summons his wise men and sorcerers and they are able to replicate this trick by their “secret arts.” The magicians throw down their staffs and they become snakes, but “Aaron’s staff swallowed up theirs (v. 12).” Just a little bit of obvious symbolism for you. 🙂

The next day, Moses and Aaron approach Pharaoh again with the LORD’s demand that Pharaoh let his people go. And they perform the first plague, turning the water of the Nile and all other bodies of water into blood. This blow to the Nile is a blow against Egyptian beliefs: not only did they see the Nile as the source of all life, but the river was also intimately connected to the lives of their gods. Now, with the water turned into blood, the fish die, everything stinks, and there is no fresh drinking water anywhere. The Egyptians must dig impromptu wells to find potable water. However, Pharaoh’s magicians are also able to turn water into blood, so Pharaoh’s heart remains hardened. Seven days pass.

Exodus 8 tells us about the next three plagues: a plague of frogs, a plague of gnats, and a plague of flies. With the frogs, Pharaoh’s magicians are able to replicate this sign. But the plague is apparently odious enough that Pharaoh sends for Moses and asks for him to pray for the removal of the frogs. Pharaoh says that he will let the Israelites go sacrifice to their God, but once the frogs are gone he changes his mind. Then comes the plague of gnats. This time, the magicians cannot replicate this wonder and they tell Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God!” But Pharaoh’s heart is hardened.

With the plague of flies, God makes a distinction between the Egyptians and the Hebrews. The Egyptians are overwhelmed by the swarms of flies, but the land of Goshen is clear. So Pharaoh sends for Moses and Aaron, and says that they may go sacrifice to their God so long as they stay in Egypt. But Moses and Aaron insist they must go into the wilderness. Pharaoh reluctantly agrees, so long as they do not go very far away. He entreats Moses to pray for the removal of the flies. Moses does this, God listens, the flies disappear — but again, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened and he will not let the Hebrews go.

I’m sure some of you have wondered, as I did, about the science behind these plagues. Did the blood somehow cause the frogs to come? When all the frogs died and the land stank, did their decomposing bodies somehow spawn the gnats? Or perhaps the flies? If the time frame of the plagues is as speedy as it appears (one week between the first and the second plague, but then just days between them), a few quick googles will disabuse you of any “natural” explanations for the plagues. Frogs take about 16 weeks to change from tadpoles into frogs. Perhaps the dead frogs did help spawn the plague of flies — depending on the type of fly, their life cycle can be from 8 days to 2 months — but all together the life cycles of these various pests just doesn’t add up. God is hastening the natural process. Or so it seems. When I doublecheck what the Scripture says, the narrative implies a very speedy timeline, but the only actual time references are to the day after God tells Moses and Aaron to approach Pharaoh. There is no mention as to whether there is some time passing between the end of one plague and the start of another.

One thing that can be difficult about the story of Pharaoh and the various plagues has to do with the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. Sometimes Scripture says that God hardens his heart, other times it says Pharaoh hardens his own heart. Which was it? we wonder. We’d like a clear-cut answer: one or the other. Not this “both / and” stuff. But when it comes to sovereignty and free will, our language or our minds just don’t have the capacity to adequately describe how things work. If you talk about it from one point of view, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. From the other point of view, Pharaoh hardened his own heart and God used it for His purposes.

Today we begin reading the apostle John’s First Epistle. Brother of James, one of the “sons of thunder,” John was part of Jesus’ inner circle and he often described himself as “the disciple that Jesus loved.” We haven’t read his gospel yet, but I have to tell you that I love John. He’s a bit woo-woo compared to the other gospel writers, but I love the way he thinks and writes.

The letter begins with John telling his readers that he gives us eyewitness testimony (“what we have seen and heard”) in order that we might have fellowship with John and the other believers. He writes “to make our joy complete.” John then begins to describe this fellowship — walking in the light with God, cleansed of our sin by the blood of Jesus through our confession of that sin.

Verse 9 is one of those verses that gives great comfort to believers, promising forgiveness of sins and cleansing from unrighteousness. I think this verse is one that becomes even more important as the years go by. Verse 10 is sharp and pointed: if we claim we have not sinned, then we are not only calling Jesus a liar but we thereby prove that God’s word does not have hold of us.

Yesterday, I mentioned that I had some anxiety as a young Christian when I read Paul’s remarks about testing yourselves to see whether or not you were in the faith. Here, in the first chapter of 1 John, we already have a couple of tests regarding faith: Do we claim fellowship but yet walk in darkness? Do we claim to be without sin, or to have not sinned?

As chapter 2 continues, John assures us that Jesus is our advocate, as well as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He tells us that “we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments (v. 3).” Thus, our third test: obedience.

Of course, Jesus’ primary commandment that we are to obey is that of loving one another. John tells us that those who hate a brother, a sister or another believer are still walking in darkness rather than in God’s light.

John counsels us in verse 15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” He goes on to discuss the Antichrist — or antichrists, since John tells us that “many antichrists have come (v. 18).” John defines an antichrist as a liar who denies Jesus is the Christ and one who denies the Father and the Son (v. 22).

In chapter 3, John marvels that God loves us enough to call us His children. “What we will be has not yet been revealed,” he says in verse 2. But we do know that we will be like Him, and because of this hope we purify ourselves.

This chapter has plenty of tests that we can use to determine whether or not we are in the faith. But it is summed up in verse 10, “The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.” In fact, John tells us in verse 15, “All who hate a brother or sister are murderers.” This echoes Jesus’ comments about anger in the Sermon on the Mount.

Perhaps the key verse in 1 John 3 is verse 18: “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” If we do this, we will have assurance “whenever our hearts condemn us.”

John’s logic and his writing is very circular. He repeats himself, and then says the same thing all over again in a slightly different way. And yet my brief summary of these chapters barely scratches the surface of the truths he would impart to us.

Today, I was struck by a comment John made. He says in 1 John 2:8 that “The darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.” This is kind of a remarkable statement, and it’s contrary to how I think of the world. To me, I feel like the world is getting darker and darker. But we do have the light of Christ. And even though I feel like the world is getting more corrupt, perhaps it’s only my perception of sin that has changed. The world was always this dark. The only reason I see the world as a darker place is because I’m more sensitive to sin than I was when I was younger.

Yet it also convicts me because I do not see the world as John describes it: with darkness passing away as the true light shines. And so the Scripture shows me that I’ve lost sight of God when I look at the world. I should be able to see Him at work better than I do. So I pray that God will renew my eyes and give me true spiritual clarity when I look at the world around us.

Psalm 69 is an interesting psalm. David prays for deliverance. The images in the first few verses show how dire the situation is: water up to the neck, mired down, without footholds, deep waters and flooding. Weary with crying, David’s eyes grow dim. He speaks of his own folly (v. 5), and prays that he will not bring shame or dishonor to those who seek God.

Suddenly, it morphs into a Messianic psalm. “Zeal for your house consumes me” in verse 9 is applied to Jesus’ anger at the money changers and those selling livestock in the temple in John 2:14-17. Verse 19 speaks of how Jesus was scorned, disgraced, and shamed. Verse 20 reminds us of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane while his closest friends slept. Verse 21b foreshadows what will happen to Jesus on the cross. But then, just as suddenly, it no longer appears to be a Messianic psalm. When the psalmist prays for God to add guilt to the wicked and not allow them to be acquitted (v. 27), it no longer sounds like Jesus.

It does sound like David, however. David says that he will praise God in song, and “this will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs (v. 31).” God hears the needy, and He will save Zion and rebuild Judah so that all who love God’s name will dwell there.

Father God, thank you that you save the needy and that you hear our cries for rescue. Thank you for John’s first letter and all the reassurance it offers. Thank you for all that you would teach us through the stories and prophecies and exhortations in Scripture. Please open our eyes to your truth. Transform us into a people that bring you praise. In Jesus’ name, Amen.