March 24 ▪ Day 83

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 14:3
Exodus 35–36
Luke 12
Psalms 83

Verse Focus (Proverbs 14:3)

A fool’s mouth lashes out with pride,
     but the lips of the wise protect them.

Meditation

Today’s verse focus is one that comes across differently depending on the translation you read. As the NRSV puts it, “The talk of fools is a rod for their backs, but the lips of the wise preserve them.” The KJV says, “In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride; but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.” The NIV of 1984 said, “A fool’s talk brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them.” However, the NIV of today says, “A fool’s mouth lashes out with pride, but the lips of the wise protect them.”

As you can tell from these few examples, something weird is going on. Basically, there are two different versions of the first half of the proverb. In one version, the fool’s talk is a “rod of pride.” This is actually what the Hebrew text says. In the other version, the fool’s talk is “a rod for the back.” A translation note refers to a “correction” without giving any details. Another version’s translation note says that “some emend” the text to say the rod is for the back. I don’t have the right tools to dig deeper into this issue, but with what I know at this moment, I judge the “rod of pride” to be the correct version of text — so long as we’re striving for accuracy. I’m quite sure the Holy Spirit has also used the “rod for the back” version with good effect to communicate truth to the saints.

I do like the modern NIV — “a fool’s mouth lashes out with pride.” That’s a little more understandable than having a “rod of pride” in the fool’s mouth. With our discussion yesterday of shepherd’s rods, we know that rods are usually used for gentle nudging, but they can also be offensive weapons — clubs to attack predators. So lashing out with pride makes a kind of sense: their pride becomes the weapon. But we could also interpret it that it’s the pride that makes fools attack with their mouths. Either way, we see the connection between fools and their pride contrasted against the wise, who are protected by their lips (possibly by their lips being shut, but also protected by what they do say).

Father God, please give us lips of the wise! May your Holy Spirit give us true humility and wisdom through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

In Exodus 35 and 36, we read the beginning of the construction of the tabernacle. Moses begins by reminding the people yet again about not working on the Sabbath. Since they will be embarking on a huge community project to create everything necessary for the Tent of Meeting, perhaps it’s a wise thing to remind them about this law. Moses asks for offerings from the people, and calls for skilled artisans. He sets Bezalel and Oholiab in charge. And so the work begins.

I have always been inspired by the descriptions in these chapters of how willing the people were to contribute what was needed, both in terms of time and materials. Verse 21 tells us that “everyone whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing” came and brought offerings for the tabernacle. In fact, the next chapter tells us the people continued bringing freewill offerings every morning — so much so, that they had to be prevented from donating more “for what they had already brought was more than enough to do all the work (v. 7).”

When we get into the actual descriptions of the curtains and how they were joined together, along with notes about the frames and bases and the various bars — well, it rarely sparks my interest. It’s more tedious reading, from my perspective (although I’m sure there are people who work in construction who might find these chapters fascinating). When I’m not reading, it occurs to me that I should pray for the Holy Spirit to open my eyes to some of the deeper meanings in these chapters. But that seems to be the kind of thing that only occurs to me once the passage is (whew!) finally done, and I’ve moved on to something else.

I did actually see something new today, however. In Exodus 35, Moses is speaking about Bezalel being filled with the Holy Spirit and the gifts and skills he has for this work. In verse 34, Moses says that God “has inspired him to teach.” And that struck me. Here we have former slaves out in the wilderness. As slaves, probably very few of them had jobs in skilled trades. Most slaves likely did all the grunt work — the cleaning and the serving and the cooking, not to mention the brick-making. When they get to the Promised Land, they won’t have to build houses or dig wells or anything like that. But they will need marketable skills to grow a thriving economy. So, here in the wilderness, we have Bezalel teaching the community how to become craftsmen and -women. Suddenly you have people learning skills and trades.

Then, too, I think about the entire project. They get to build a tabernacle for God. They get to create something portable but majestic. Something beautiful. They get to create art. And I see that this project helped feed their souls. It helped bond them into a stronger community and gave them a better identity than they had while in Egypt.

Pretty nifty, huh?

Luke chapter 12 has a number of little treasures that I discover today. Did you realize that the crowds around Jesus were so bad that people trampled on each other? That’s a detail Luke tells us in the first verse, and yet it somehow never made it into my understanding about how the people flocked to Jesus. He was literally mobbed. People got hurt. I suppose I imagined respectful crowds. But, no, these crowds were just like any other mass of people — pushing, shoving, trampling: dangerous.

Again, there’s the reminder that the “yeast” of the Pharisees can mean a number of different things. Here, it means hypocrisy. In Matthew it referred to their teaching. Since we’ve been reading in Exodus about how sacrifices were to be paired with unleavened bread, I gain a new perspective on why Jesus uses “yeast” as the metaphor for the attitudes and ideas espoused by the Pharisees. Yeast multiplies. It spreads. It will leaven a huge lump (in other words, it will infect large masses of people). Yeast adds something to the dough that wasn’t there previously — air, lightness. Definitely tasty. But they are altering the flat, hardness of unleavened bread — the law, the Torah — and making it lighter and more palatable. Perhaps destroying its integrity in the process.

We also have the Parable of the Rich Fool in this chapter. This parable is one that is unique to Luke’s gospel. In the story, a rich man has so much wealth he decides to build bigger barns to store his wealth and then he plans to take life easy. However, God calls him a “fool” and claims his life. The fool cannot take these riches with him; they will vanish. Jesus warns us in verse 21 not to store up treasures on earth, but to be “rich toward God.”

However, it is the set-up to the parable that caught my attention today. A man asks Jesus to intervene in a family financial dispute. He asks Jesus to tell his brother to “divide the family inheritance” with him. And Jesus responds first with a question, who set me to be the judge for this? But then he says, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” And then he tells the story about the rich fool.

It’s rather shocking to have Jesus respond to the man with a warning against greed. Greed, we think, as the man probably also thought. Who said anything about greed? We’re not talking about greed, we’re talking about justice — about fairness, about what is mine by right. That’s not greed. Somehow, though, we’ve managed to convince ourselves that it’s not greed if it’s something that we own or should own. It’s only greed if it wasn’t ours to begin with — yes, we understand what it means to covet and we know that’s wrong (even if we still do it sometimes). But how can you be greedy about your own wealth?

One dictionary definition of greed says, “A selfish and excessive desire for more of something than is needed, such as money.” Exactly! I’m not wanting more than my share of the inheritance. I only want my share: what’s mine. However, another definition says, “Intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.”

Of course, Jesus understands sin all too well. We’re the ones who have managed to get a warped view of what greed is. And it’s not about acquiring more, it’s about the attitude you have towards your wealth and your possessions. In fact, the Rich Fool is one that would have seemed laudable by our society. He wasn’t motivated by greed — his whole plan was to relax and enjoy life. This is not a greedy man, we think. Yet this man is the one that Jesus tells us about to illustrate the dangers of greed. The biggest problem with greed isn’t what it might make you do, it’s that you see wealth in terms of earthly treasure. God doesn’t come into the equation at all.

As my ideas about greed are shaken up, I am haunted by what Jesus says: One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions (v. 15). For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing (v. 23). For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (v. 34).

Today’s psalm is the last one attributed to Asaph. Psalm 83 is a prayer for judgment upon Israel’s enemies. The psalmist speaks of nations that conspire against them. They are crafty, planning to utterly wipe out the entire nation of Israel. So the psalmist prays for them to be soundly defeated. He prays that God would make them as inconsequential as tumbleweeds or dust, “like chaff before the wind (v. 13).”

Verse 16 is interesting. The psalmist prays, “Fill their faces with shame, so that they may seek your name, O LORD.” At first glance this seems like a prayer for the other nations to repent and worship the LORD. But then the psalmist continues his prayer, asking that these enemies “perish in disgrace” as they learn that the LORD is Most High.

Although I can’t speak with 100 per cent authority, I believe that verse 16 is a prophecy for the other nations, even if Asaph didn’t intend it to be that way. Some of the New Testament authors will pick a verse out of Scripture and talk about prophetic applications, even though the surrounding verses do not seem to fully support that same prophecy. So either single verses or small pieces of a passage can prophesy of something that the rest of the passage does not, or else my understanding is just too flawed. The problem with this type of “pick and choose” prophecy, however, is that I wouldn’t condone it as a general rule. Scripture needs to be understood within the context of other Scripture. Not just within its own passage, but compared to other books and passages. But, certainly, it needs to be first understood within its own passage. And in that respect, Psalm 83 is a prayer for judgment on other nations, not a prayer for their conversion. It is only as we understand God’s plan to redeem the entire world that I can look back at Psalm 83:16 and say — see, there is the Holy Spirit praying for other nations to come to know the LORD.

Father God, we do pray for you to rise up in judgment against the evil and against the enemies of the righteous. We know that the evil will vanish and be remembered no more. But we pray that you would vanquish these enemies through your ability to redeem and transform even the most wicked of us. We pray for your intervention even now in our world. We hear of terrible crimes — senseless mass murders and hate crimes. Only you can change the hearts of these people. We pray for you to stop the violence.

Father, I thank you for the lessons of Scripture. I love seeing how you cared for the needs of your people. In having them work for your glory to create a space for worship, you also trained the people to prepare them for their lives in the Promised Land. You began to satisfy their souls with beauty and art. Thank you for that.

Forgive me for thinking I was above greed, simply because I’m not always plagued with a desire for more. Help me to become truly rich towards you, and to be building up treasure in heaven. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.