March 31 ▪ Day 90

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 14:21
Jeremiah 9–10
Luke 19
Psalms 90

Verse Focus (Proverbs 14:21)

It is a sin to despise one’s neighbor,
     but blessed is the one who is kind to the needy.

Meditation

Day 90! One quarter of a year. Hard to believe, huh? Congratulations to all of us! And praise God for His faithfulness in bringing us through thus far!! 🙂

Today’s proverb, Proverbs 14:21, says, “It is a sin to despise one’s neighbor, but blessed is the one who is kind to the needy.” This is not a proverb that I’ve given a lot of thought to recently. Perhaps because I live in an apartment complex; my neighbors are always changing, and I’m lucky if I even meet them. But when I was a homeowner, then my neighbors took on a much greater importance.

Of course, we know that when the Bible speaks of your “neighbor,” it means so much more than whoever happens to live next to you. But to begin with, let’s start with considering our next-door neighbors. Just like with family, you live close enough to neighbors to see some of their flaws up close and personal — close enough to aggravate, but not quite close enough to be something you would necessarily confront them about. So if they don’t pick up their yard, or mow their lawn, or take out the garbage… you see that. If they are loud late at night, or are loud early in the morning on the one day you get to sleep in late — again, you get irritated. You see the stream of relatives, you see enough of how they keep their house — good and bad, you see your neighbors. Sometimes they’ll put you to shame. But it’s more often that you can find ways to think yourself superior to them. And when you feel superior, or when you see something you think they ought to fix, that’s when you start to despise them.

“Happy are those who are kind to the poor,” says the NRSV in the second half of this proverb. The interesting thing is that your neighbors are being compared to the poor and needy. What? Those slobs? (Or those house-proud self-righteous, arrogant hypocrites?) How can they be poor and needy? Well, on the “slob” end of the spectrum, your neighbors may not be as well-off financially, and perhaps they’re working two jobs to make ends meet and so they don’t have time to keep the yard neat and tidy. So they might be literally poor (at least in comparison to you). On the house-proud end, they could also be literally poor — and thus they take better care of their things because it’s all they have. My point is, you don’t really know if your neighbors are literally poor or not. And “poor” and “needy” also refers to spiritual health, too. We are all poor and needy from God’s perspective. And shouldn’t we be viewing and treating our neighbors from God’s perspective? By loving them? By being the Good Samaritan, that is by being a neighbor more than simply having a neighbor?

As I was thinking about this proverb today, I was also thinking about neighbors in terms of countries. We are so proud of our own country (not that we don’t realize that we’ve got lots of flaws)… but we look down on poorer countries particularly. As Americans, I think we’re like the Pharisee that prayed thank God, I’m not like that tax collector… thank God I don’t live in that country!

Father God, keep us from the sin of despising our neighbor, whether that be our literal next-door neighbors or those in our communities, in our country, or in other countries. Help us always to be kind to the poor and needy. Give us your heart to see people and to treat them with love, dignity, and compassion. In Jesus’ name and for his sake, Amen.

In Jeremiah 9, the prophet starts by wishing he had enough water in his body for all the tears needed to lament the slain of Judah. But then he wishes that he could run away to a remote place because he cannot bear being around the wickedness of all the people.

They do not know the LORD (v. 3); worse, they refuse to know the LORD (v. 6). Verse 4 warns us to beware our own neighbors and to “put no trust in any of your kin.” This is the exact opposite of community. It is the opposite of how things are supposed to be. With all the iniquity being committed, verse 5 tells us the people are “too weary” to repent.

God says in verse 7 that He will test and refine the people, “for what else can I do?” As He recounts their deceit and the violence in their hearts, the LORD repeats the refrain from yesterday, asking in verse 9, “Shall I not punish them for these things?”

As I read this chapter, I too feel the weariness of Jeremiah, the people, and even the LORD. I understand Jeremiah’s desire to escape. And the weight of Judah’s iniquity reminds me of what it feels like to be in bondage to sin — to have no energy for optimism, and no hope for things to improve. Even as the LORD asks what other options He has, I feel His desire for a better solution than the cycle of sin, punishment, and repentance.

But it is not yet time for the Messiah to come. And so Jeremiah speaks the prophecy of devastation. Death, shame, desolation. The people will be scattered and utterly consumed. This is all coming about because they have forsaken the law and disobeyed the LORD’s voice. The prophecy pauses for a moment as the LORD declares in verses 23 and 24:

Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom,
     do not let the mighty boast in their might,
     do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth;
but let those who boast boast in this,
     that they understand and know me,
     that I am the Lord;
I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth,
     for in these things I delight, says the Lord.

Indeed, the LORD concludes the prophecy by promising the days are coming when he will “attend” to those who are not circumcised in the heart (v. 25-26).

Jeremiah 10 speaks of the ridiculousness of idols — things made of wood, carved by artists, covered with metal and royal clothing, and yet that cannot walk and cannot save. The LORD commands the house of Israel to not learn the ways of other nations or be dismayed by their idols and their signs. Rather, they should speak up and declare what is different about their God — the LORD who made the heavens and the earth by His wisdom and who commands the elements.

The LORD warns the people of Judah that He will scatter them. Verse 18 says, “I will bring distress on them, so that they shall feel it.”

The prophet speaks of a wound that is severe — a just punishment. He laments in verse 20, “My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken; my children have gone from me, and they are no more.” He pleads for the LORD to discipline him in “just measure, not in your anger (v. 24)” or else he will be reduced to nothing. He also begs the LORD to pour out his wrath upon the nations that have punished Judah for they have “devoured Jacob (v. 25).”

It was the phrase “so that they shall feel it” in verse 18 that got to me today. If we do not feel God’s correction, or feel the punishment, then it does not touch our hearts and we remain in the prison of our sinfulness. Part of the weariness of iniquity is that our hearts become numb to God. We do have an advantage over the people of Jeremiah’s time. We stand righteous in God’s eyes because we are covered by Christ’s blood; and therefore the Holy Spirit is freely available to help us. It may not seem like much of an advantage when we continue to stumble and fall, but we are on the way to an eternal life where we will no longer stumble.

So just remember if you feel the sting of conviction or suffer during a time of trial, this is a good thing that you can feel that. It means your heart is still responsive. And, as the Scripture says in 1 Peter 5:6, “in due time He will lift you up.”

Luke 19 tells us the story of Zacchaeus, a rich tax collector who wanted to see Jesus. Because he was short, he couldn’t get near Jesus. So he runs ahead of the crowd, finds a tree, and climbs up it. And when Jesus gets to the tree, he looks up and calls Zacchaeus down. As you know, Zacchaeus is moved by Jesus’ intention to come to his house. And when he hears the grumbles of the people, Zacchaeus declares that he will make things right with anyone that he has defrauded.

As I re-read this story today, I was struck by what Zacchaeus did before meeting Jesus. He climbed a tree. And Jesus knew. The crowd would surely have been an obstacle for Jesus to see Zacchaeus, just as it was an obstacle for Zacchaeus to see him. Yet God always knows what we do when we prepare to meet Him, or hope to meet Him. We know that God sees all and knows all. And yet somehow we think that we don’t have His attention. We don’t realize that He sees us. He sees us when we are discouraged, when we are lackadaisical, when we are excited, when we are happy. It’s not just that He knows these things about us, but that He actually sees us. God’s attention is on us.

Luke also tells us Jesus’ parable of the ten minas. In fact, he tells us why Jesus told this parable: “because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately (v. 11).” The disciples then needed to learn that things would play out differently than they expected. But as his disciples now, this parable is about us. This is what is happening right now, while Jesus is away. And we are told that we are each given some money to manage for Christ. Further, we will have to give an accounting one day for our stewardship.

In verse 25, the people in Jesus’ story object when the money will be given to one who already has ten minas. Jesus replies to them that “to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” Still, I wonder about why these people objected in the first place. Why were the people so surprised that the one who had ten minas would get more? Was it even surprise? Or did it offend their sense of what was proper? Did they think the money should be distributed evenly and fairly among them all? Or that someone else entirely should get a chance to manage the money?

I haven’t totally figured it out yet, but there’s a lesson here that I need to learn from the people’s surprise at the money being given to the person with ten minas. Perhaps it’s a lesson about God’s sovereignty and His will — the resources are His to distribute as He pleases.

We read in Luke 19 about Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. The original Palm Sunday. One of the few times when Jesus was treated the way he should have been treated. When the Pharisees told him to rebuke the people for what they were saying, Jesus replied in verse 40, “If these were silent, the stones would shout out.” Why? Because it was, as Jesus notes in verse 44, “the time of your visitation from God.” Even though the people didn’t fully recognize it, there had to be celebration for this event. Just like the angels were compelled to announce Christ’s birth. Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem and it is the time of fulfillment. This week will bring God’s plans full cycle. Satan will be defeated, and Jesus will win a great victory for all humankind.

Psalm 90 is one of my favorite psalms. It is the only psalm that has been attributed to Moses. He is not identified as Israel’s leader, or as a prophet, or as God’s friend. The inscription simply calls him, “Moses, the man of God.” In that respect I think this is meant to be a psalm — a prayer — for every man and woman.

So many verses are jewels! Verse 2: “From everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Verse 4: “For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.” And my all-time favorite is verse 12: “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” The final verse comes a close second with the prayer for God to “establish the work of our hands.”

It’s funny how some interpret my favorite verse. I saw some of the English paraphrase translations of verse 12 as praying that God might show us our mortality. “Number our days” was being interpreted as “show us how quickly we’re going to die”! And yet I’ve always seen this verse as being about using our time wisely. Making the most of every opportunity. How to spend our minutes, rather than just our years.

Today as I read the psalm, however, it was verse 11 that struck me. “Who considers the power of your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.” Therefore, Moses prays, teach us to number our days…. It’s not surprising that I typically just skip over verse 11. God’s anger and wrath make us uncomfortable. And yet Moses knew God’s wrath in a far more tangible way than we do. He saw the LORD decimate Egypt with the different plagues. He saw Pharaoh and his army dead in the Red Sea. And he experienced God’s anger firsthand when the Israelites made the golden calf idol.

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about God’s wrath. But verse 11 invites me to consider it more deeply, and to recognize that fear of God’s wrath can be a motivation for doing the right thing. As we’ve been reading Jeremiah, I’ve come to see that God’s wrath is partly how we truly understand just how important justice and righteousness are. Without wrath, we would not fully understand the seriousness of sin. And without wrath, we cannot fully understand the grace we have received through Christ Jesus.

Father God, even though your anger and wrath makes me uncomfortable, I want to consider how mighty that aspect of your character is. I want that to inform my desire to do the right thing and to make every moment count. Please help me to number my days aright, and please establish the work of my hands (especially this devotional project).

LORD, thank you that you notice me and that I do have your attention. Thank you for caring about what things are difficult for me, and for reaching out to me when I can’t seem to get quite close enough to you. Thank you most of all for Jesus Christ and for what he did for me by dying on the cross. Thank you that you have created a better solution for the cycle of sin, punishment, and repentance. Thank you for the Holy Spirit. Thank you that you are continuing to work out your plan of salvation, even now. May I be faithful and a good steward for you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.