May 11 ▪ Day 131

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 17:10
Ezekiel 11–12
Acts 28
Psalms 131

Verse Focus (Proverbs 17:10)

A rebuke impresses a discerning person
     more than a hundred lashes a fool.

Meditation

Proverbs 17:10 teaches us, “A rebuke impresses a discerning person more than a hundred lashes a fool.” What a contrast we see here! A quiet word can have more impact than physical force. But effectiveness depends entirely on the person who hears the rebuke or receives the punishment. Are they wise? Or foolish?

A hundred lashes is an extreme number. Deuteronomy 25:3 limits the number of lashes that can be given to 40. Even the Romans thought more than 40 lashes was a death penalty. So for this proverb to mention 100 lashes, we must understand that the force being used is two and a half times more than what any person should receive. This is not realistic punishment, but hyperbole. Even if you did give a fool as much as two and a half times the punishment they are due, it wouldn’t make a difference.

I like what John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible says for this verse: “A word will enter where a blow will not; stripes only reach the back, but not the heart of a fool; he is never the better for all the corrections given him; his heart is not affected, is not humbled, nor brought to a sense of sin, and acknowledgment of it; nor is he in the least reformed.”

The ESV translates Proverbs 17:10 as: “A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.” I like the idea of a the rebuke going “deeper.” It has more effect. The rebuke reaches the heart.

Father God, please give us discernment and wisdom and the humility to accept rebukes. Do not let us be stubborn and obstinate. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Ezekiel 11 concludes the prophet’s vision from the LORD of the temple in Jerusalem. At the east gate of the temple, where the cherubim and the LORD had relocated at the end of chapter 10, there are now a group of men. Ezekiel recognizes two of the men, Jaazaniah and Pelatiah, “princes of the people (v. 1).” The LORD tells Ezekiel that these men are giving wicked counsel to the city, and he commands Ezekiel to prophesy to them. The Spirit fills Ezekiel and he is given words to say to these men. He accuses the men of multiplying the slain of the city, and of not obeying the LORD’s commands, but walking in the “rules of the nations that are around you (v. 12).” Ezekiel tells them that they will be brought out of the city and given into the hands of the foreigners. Twice in verses 10 through 12, Ezekiel repeats, “I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the LORD.”

Of course, having just read Jeremiah, we know that this did indeed happen in 586 BC. The remnant of the court in Jerusalem dug their way out of the wall at night, and ran from the Babylonians. They were captured, however, and brought to Riblah on the border of Israel, which was Nebuchadnezzar’s base of operations during the siege. The king was blinded and then all the nobles were killed.

While Ezekiel is prophesying against these men, the prince Pelatiah dies. Again, the death causes Ezekiel to cry out to God about how few are left in Jerusalem. “Ah, LORD God!” he wails in verse 13, “Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”

The LORD’s response to Ezekiel is gracious. Even though He has scattered the people, He has become a sanctuary to them in exile (v. 16). He promises to re-gather the people (v. 17). And, in a very important prophecy in verses 19 and 20, God says:

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Even as God promises that He will give his people new hearts and a new spirit, he warns Ezekiel that those whose hearts seek “detestable things and their abominations” will have their deeds brought back upon their own heads (v. 21). With this final warning, the LORD and the cherubim leave Jerusalem, retreating to a nearby mountain. The Spirit returns Ezekiel to his home near the Kebar River and he immediately tells the exiles all that he saw in these visions on the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of their exile (in about 591 BC).

Ezekiel 12 is another prophecy of what will soon happen to the remnant of the Jerusalem court. It is another performance. Ezekiel packs a bag in the daytime, digs through the wall in the evening, and at dusk he covers his head and takes the bag through the wall. The next day Ezekiel is given a message to tell those who were curious about his actions of the day before. The prince and nobles left in Jerusalem will do just as Ezekiel did. There is a further prophecy just for the “prince” — King Zedekiah — in verse 13, “And I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, yet he shall not see it, and he shall die there.”

Towards the end of the chapter, Ezekiel receives two additional prophecies, both of which promise that the LORD will act very soon.

There is symbolism in this chapter about being purposefully blind to the LORD’s will and ways. Ezekiel covers his head when he goes out the wall to symbolize how the prince will refuse to look at Jerusalem when he leaves. The Scripture says in verse 12, “He shall cover his face, that he may not see the land with his eyes.” This refusal to look at the land — the Promised Land — even as they flee speaks of a deliberate blindness on the part of King Zedekiah. And he ends up punished for this willful blindness when he becomes physically blind at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

Today we conclude reading the book of the Acts of the Apostles. After being shipwrecked on Malta, Paul heals all the sick on the island. This gives them favor from the islanders, so that when they board a new vessel bound for Rome they are given all the supplies they need to continue their journey (v. 10). So Paul arrives in Rome. Rather than being imprisoned in a government cell, Paul is allowed to “stay by himself (v. 16)” — along with the soldier who is guarding him. He is chained, but has a relative freedom of activity. From his rented home, Paul is able to preach the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles for the next two years.

Despite the vitriol with which the high priest Ananias and the others in the Sanhedrin had pursued Paul, the Jewish leaders in Rome have not received any letters from them about Paul. This strikes me as odd; however, perhaps the Sanhedrin realized they would not be successful in pursuing Paul through the Roman court system. If they had thought to send letters of warning to the Jews in Rome, any such letters failed to arrive. It is interesting to note, however, that even though the Jewish leaders had not heard about Paul and his case, they have been hearing negative things about the Way. They are eager to hear what Paul has to say since “people everywhere are speaking against this sect (v. 22).”

I was struck by what Paul first tells the Jewish leaders in Rome. “It is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain,” he says in verse 20. He spends all day expounding on the gospel to a large group of them. As it has been nearly everywhere the gospel is preached, “some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved (v. 24).”

Luke concludes the book of Acts by saying in verses 30 and 31 that Paul “welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” After all the trials and tribulations we saw Paul endure, we now have a vision of the growth and expansion of the church — with boldness and without hindrance.

It was during this time of house arrest that Paul was able to write so many of the letters that became part of our New Testament canon. Some theologians argue that Paul’s greatest ministry was not preaching the gospel in Asia, but in writing the letters that form the basis for our doctrine and theology.

Nevertheless, many people wonder about why the book of Acts ends as it does. To many, it seems unfinished. Why doesn’t Luke tell us what happened to Paul? Of course, the purpose of writing this book was not to give a biography of Paul. In Acts 1, Luke tells Theophilus that the apostles had asked Jesus if this was when he would be restoring the kingdom of Israel. And Jesus’ response was that we were not to know times that God has set by His own authority. He promised in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This is the story of Acts — the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and of how various believers became witnesses in Judea, Samaria, and to the “ends of the earth.”

Some people interpret that Rome was the ends of the earth from the point of view of Judea. Others say, no, Acts is deliberately unfinished because the work of being witnesses to the ends of the earth is not yet complete. It is up to us to help write the conclusion to this story.

As for Paul, there are some differing traditions about what happened to him. Some believe he was executed in Rome during one of Nero’s purges (when Peter was also killed). However, there is evidence from letters and other writings of the early church fathers that Paul went to Spain, as he had hoped. Whether he died in Gaul or back in Rome again, or went someplace else entirely is just not known. Considering the impact he had on church theology, it’s probably just as well that Paul left no mortal remains to end up being venerated by the later church. From Paul’s letters, we know that how he met his end (assuming he wasn’t translated directly into heaven like Enoch) doesn’t matter in the slightest. All that matters is that he ran his race with perseverance.

Psalm 131 is another very short Psalm of Ascent. Written by David, this Pilgrim Song is only three verses long. It is a picture of humbling oneself before the LORD. David recognizes that there are some things that we are not meant to know or understand. “I have calmed and quieted my soul,” he says in verse 2. The psalm closes with hope and trust; David exhorts his fellow Israelites to place their trust in God — now and forevermore.

Father God, there are some questions we have that will not be answered during our mortal life. While we might wonder what happened in Paul’s story, we know that it is our job to do what he did — to be your witness and to preach the gospel with boldness. Thank you for fulfilling in our times the promise you gave to Ezekiel — to set your Spirit inside us and to give us new hearts. May you help us to walk in your ways through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.