May 12 ▪ Day 132

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 17:12
Ezekiel 13–14
Colossians 1–2
Psalms 132

Verse Focus (Proverbs 17:12)

Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs
     than a fool bent on folly.

Meditation

The viciousness with which wild creatures will protect their young is legendary. Mother bears in particular have a reputation of being very dangerous when protecting their young. In fact, according to Bear.org, 70 per cent of the cases where humans have been killed by grizzly bears have occurred because of a mother grizzly bear protecting her cubs. This adds quite a perspective to our verse focus today!

Proverbs 17:12 says, “Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool bent on folly.” In other words, a fool bent on folly is one of the most dangerous things you may encounter. You put your health, your life, and your soul at risk. The best thing you can do is retreat and give a wide berth to the fool.

But let’s review our list of Scriptural fools — just so that we’ll be forewarned and forearmed. 🙂

Fools are those who are morally deficient, who believe that there is no God. They hate turning from evil. They are arrogant and prideful, thinking that they do not need to learn anything. In fact, they hate learning. They hate discipline. They do not have wisdom. They are scoffers and mockers. They are hot-headed. They lack self-control. They are easily annoyed and easily enraged. They cause strife. They quarrel. They attack with their words; they slander and boast. They are obstinate. They are trouble-makers. They are sluggards. They are lazy and unprepared. And they are gullible. Whew! I’m not sure if I’ve got the complete list, but these are the things we’ve talked about so far this year….

Father God, please help us to avoid fools and their folly. Mostly, though, we pray that you will remove foolishness from our own hearts. Give us wisdom by your Holy Spirit. Through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Ezekiel 13 is a condemnation of false prophets. They prophesy lies and false visions “from their own hearts (v. 2).” They deceive the people and fail to help them in their need. As verse 5 says, “You have not gone up into the breaches, or built up a wall for the house of Israel, that it might stand in battle in the day of the LORD.”

Verse 6 strikes me. Ezekiel says, “And yet they expect him to fulfill their word.” Part of me marvels at the blindness of these false prophets, that they cannot even recognize that the words they declare are coming from their own hearts. They cannot hear God’s voice as distinct from their own. Or perhaps they are listening to a lying spirit and cannot distinguish that this spirit is not from God. But a part of me grieves, too, because we have seen this happen in our own time. In the media, in just the past couple of years, there were a number of prophecies about the pandemic being halted within “just a few months” or about President Trump being re-elected — things that obviously did not come true. It grieves me that some who profess Christ’s name are making false prophecies and — like the false prophets of Ezekiel’s time — they sincerely believe that God is going to make their words come true.

The false prophets have profaned God’s name, disheartening the righteous and encouraging the wicked. But God declares in verse 23, “I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the LORD.”

Ezekiel 14 begins with “certain of the elders of Israel (v. 1)” coming to consult with Ezekiel. This may be the same time as when he had his vision of the temple in Jerusalem in Ezekiel 8, or it may be another occasion. Commentators disagree as to whether these elders are simply the elders from among the exiles, or if there was a delegation from Jerusalem. We do know that some of Zedekiah’s court came to Babylon in 593 BC (since Seraiah son of Neriah was given a prophecy from Jeremiah to read once in Babylon), but that was two years earlier than the vision in Ezekiel 8. It is possible other small delegations came, whether on official business to Babylon or whether simply to see how the exiles fared.

Regardless, while Ezekiel is sitting with these elders, he receives word from the LORD that these men have taken “idols into their hearts (v. 3).” The LORD asks if He should let Himself be consulted by them. And yet Ezekiel does prophesy for them to repent and turn from their idols. He confirms that Jerusalem will not be spared from the LORD’s “four disastrous acts of judgment: sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence (v. 21).”

In verse 14, God tells them that even if Noah, Daniel, and Job lived in Jerusalem, they could not save anyone other than themselves. This refrain is repeated four times — once for each type of judgment that Jerusalem will undergo. Obviously, these are all well-known Bible characters, known for their righteousness and integrity. But what distinguishes them from — say, Samuel or Moses — is that each of these three men were able to save the lives of other people through their intercession. Noah saved his family (Genesis 6:18). Daniel saved his friends’ lives by interpreting the king’s dream (Daniel 2:17-18). And Job saved his friends through intercessory prayer (Job 42:7-8). That is why the fact that these three men would not be able to save anyone other than themselves is so significant.

It is an interesting collection of people. Obviously, Ezekiel would have known of Noah since he is mentioned in Genesis. Daniel was a contemporary of Ezekiel — his earliest chapters predate Ezekiel, but most of the book of Daniel comes significantly later than Ezekiel’s prophecies. Although Job lived in a time probably before Abraham, most scholars think the book was not written until between 700 to 300 BC. The fact that Ezekiel prophesies concerning him seems to indicate that Ezekiel and the elders were indeed familiar with the book of Job.

As the chapter ends, the LORD promises that He will allow some survivors from Jerusalem. He says that the exiles will be consoled by these survivors for then they will learn that the LORD did not punish them “without cause (v. 23).”

Today we begin reading Colossians, one of the letters Paul wrote in about 62 AD when he was under house arrest in Rome. Colossae was located about 100 miles east of Ephesus, and about 10 miles southeast of Laodicea. In Colossians 2:1, Paul writes of how he labors on behalf of the Colossians, the Laodiceans, and “all those who have not seen me face to face.” Indeed, Paul had never visited Colossae, although he knew of them from Epaphras, his “dearly loved fellow servant (v. 7).” The believers at Colossae were mostly Gentiles. As with other Gentile believers, there was some pressure to conform to Jewish law. The letter also deals with early hints of what later became the Gnostic heresy with its distrust of the body and its emphasis on the mind including the belief that there was special secret knowledge that only some received. Gnosticism was more of a problem for the church in the second century, but what Paul writes is foundational to the church’s response to this heresy.

Paul begins by telling the Colossians how much he and Timothy thank God for them and their faith, which is “bearing fruit and increasing (v. 6).”

Paul’s prayer for the Colossians in verse 9 through 12 is the kind of prayer that is becoming increasingly more important to me as a model for my own prayers. There is a lot packed into these few sentences — too much to absorb in just one reading! But today I focus on being “filled with the knowledge of his will (v. 9).” The desire to present the believers as “mature in Christ (v. 28)” also resonates.

This chapter gives us one of the most beautiful descriptions of who Christ is. It is also foundational to our theology — the idea that Christ is both fully God and fully human. He is the “image of the in visible God (v. 15)” and has “all the fullness of God (v. 19)” dwelling in him. Christ is preeminent. God created all things by Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. “In him all things hold together (v. 17).” Whenever I read that verse, I think about what holds atoms together. 🙂

Colossians 2 is also packed full with theology. Just in case anyone was tempted to think that Christ was only God and not really human, Paul tells us in verse 9, “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” The chapter is dense with truths. Paul tells the Colossians and us that we “were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands (v. 11).” He tells us that baptism is our way of being buried with Christ (v. 12). Christ canceled our “record of debt… by nailing it to the cross (v. 14).”

The fact that we have died to the world with Christ makes all the difference as to whether or not we submit to the rules of this world. Verse 17 is especially striking: “These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” Paul concludes by saying in verse 23 that these rules have “an appearance of wisdom… but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” Only Christ and the Holy Spirit can help with that.

Psalm 132 is the lengthiest of the Psalms of Ascent. At 18 verses, it is double, triple, or even quadruple the length of the other Pilgrim Songs. The psalm focuses on how the LORD has chosen Zion to be his dwelling place. It begins with David’s desire to build a temple for the LORD. David earnestly seeks a permanent place of worship for the Israelites — God’s earthly abode. Yet when David sought to build a house for God in 2 Samuel 7, the LORD turned things around on him and said that instead He would build David’s house and establish the throne of his kingdom forever. David’s son, Solomon, was the one to build the first temple of the LORD.

This psalm echoes that history as it speaks of David’s desire to find “a dwelling place (v. 5)” for the LORD. The psalmist calls for God to arise and go to His “resting place (v. 8),” and to remember the oath he swore to David (v. 11). The psalm concludes by celebrating how the LORD has chosen Zion as his dwelling place. Verse 14 says, “This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.”

Father God, we thank you for how you keep your word. You remember your covenant promises to Israel and to David. Thank you for sending Jesus to sit permanently on the throne of David, to rule your people with justice. Thank you that you canceled our debt and nailed it to the cross. May we live with Christ and bring you honor and glory in your kingdom. Amen.