July 29 ▪ Day 210

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 20:13
Deuteronomy 7–8
Romans 1–2
Psalms 26

Verse Focus (Proverbs 20:13)

Do not love sleep or you will grow poor;
     stay awake and you will have food to spare.

Meditation

Proverbs 20:13 speaks against slothfulness that is expressed by spending too much time in bed asleep. As the NIV says, “Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare.” This is a verse that I memorized many years ago. As someone who battles against laziness, I also have to battle against the desire to stay in bed.

I find it interesting that most of the commentaries on this verse speak first of how sleep is one of God’s blessings. Writers are quick to clarify that this proverb is speaking about excessive indolence. That, to me, seems obvious. God created us with a need to sleep, and a need to rest. He even commands us to rest every seven days.

But just as we can be tempted to linger too long in bed, so also we can be tempted to have too little rest. When I was young, sleeping too much was a real problem. But now that I have adult responsibilities, I struggle more with not getting enough rest. Or maybe with spending too much time in restful activities (I do love a good book!), but not enough time actually sleeping. Do a quick survey of your co-workers, and the majority of them will be suffering from not enough sleep and not enough rest. We have a real problem in our culture with our relationship between work and rest.

So I would caution — if you struggle to get out of bed when your alarm goes off, if you want nothing more than just to go back to sleep — is it because you love sleep? Or because you’re actually sleep-deprived?

Unfortunately, laziness isn’t the only reason why we love sleeping. Sometimes, as noted above, we’re actually not getting enough sleep. Other times, we sleep because we’re depressed. It’s a way of running away from things we don’t have the energy to handle. And for depression, as for laziness, you need to just get out of bed and start being active. It may not solve everything, but it will help.

I don’t have the answers. I’m still struggling to find a good balance between work and rest — to live productively, and in a manner that pleases God. But getting out of bed in the morning, doing the work you’re called to do and not putting off your chores — well, then you’ll have food to spare. 🙂

Father God, help us to sleep and work in healthy ways. Keep us from being lazy, but keep us also from play time that keeps us from sleeping when we should. We pray that you would give us wisdom, and help us to be industrious and fruitful people. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

In Deuteronomy 7, Moses reminds the people that when they enter the Promised Land, they are to devote the Canaanites to “complete destruction (v. 2).” They are not to show mercy, they are not to make a covenant with any of these peoples, they are not to intermarry with them. They are to break down the Canaanite altars, smash their pillars, chop down the Asherah poles, and burn all their idols. They are not to be tempted by the silver and gold on the idols or take it for themselves because it will ensnare them — “it is an abomination to the LORD your God (v. 25).”

The Israelites were “the fewest of all peoples (v. 7),” but the LORD chose them and continues to bless them because of the covenant of love He made with their ancestors. Moses exhorts the Israelites to keep the LORD’s commands so that it will go well with them in the Promised Land. The LORD will take away from them “all sickness (v. 15),” and bless their people and their livestock.

Moses warns them that they must be careful to destroy the Canaanites, otherwise the inhabitants of the land will be a snare to them. He tells them that they do not need to fear the Canaanites, even though they live in fortified cities and some are the descendants of giants, because the LORD their God is with them. He reminds them of how God treated Pharaoh. Moses tells them in verse 22, “The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.

As modern readers of the Old Testament, the fact that the Israelites were commanded to completely wipe out the inhabitants of Canaan is a hard pill to swallow. We have been raised under the covenant of grace, love, and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. So the idea that God commanded His people to wipe out other peoples is a challenging thing for us to understand. Genocide is a crime in our modern world; we deplore such hatred and aggression and excessive nationalism, and like to believe that we are more “enlightened” than our ancestors were. Of course history and even current events shows that we are not any better at all — there is still wickedness and depravity in all peoples and nations. And some crimes truly deserve judgment. We wouldn’t think much of a God who was not wrathful over the Holocaust or some of the atrocities committed in Yugoslavia or Rwanda.

Still, we need to understand that God executes judgment on a nation or peoples by raising up another people to war against them and kill them. And He makes it clear that the Canaanites had filled their measure of wickedness (Genesis 15:16; Leviticus 18:24-25). Slavery was commonplace. Archaeologists can cite evidence of the Canaanites’ sexual depravity and sin. We also know that they practiced human sacrifice, routinely sacrificing children and babies. They worshiped demons.

Even though we find this hard to understand, we must remember that God is just. We live in a Christianized society, and find it hard to imagine how truly evil a pagan culture could be. As we read through Deuteronomy, and some of the other history books of the Old Testament, it can be difficult to reconcile the view we have of God in these books with the view that we get in the New Testament. That was something I struggled with a lot as a young Christian. It takes time to understand God in all His different aspects — creative, holy, just, wrathful, loving, merciful, steadfast, wise…. He is not one-dimensional.

In Deuteronomy 8, Moses admonishes the Israelites to remember the LORD their God. He speaks of their time in the wilderness as a time when God humbled them and tested them, “to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not (v. 2).” God allowed the Israelites to hunger “so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD (v. 3).” Moses reminds the Israelites that God disciplines them “as a man disciplines his son (v. 5).” He allows hardship because of His great love for us.

The wilderness was a “great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water (v. 15),” but now they will enter a land of plenty. “You will eat bread without scarcity,” says verse 9. Moses warns the Israelites not to forget God when they are at ease. He also warns them not to get proud and believe that it was their own power and might that achieved this prosperity.

Hearing Moses describe what the Israelites learned in the wilderness is enlightening. We too go through “wilderness” times. These times are meant to teach us to cling to God. We learn how shallow our faith has been. And we also learn we need His word as much as we need food and water. I’m not quite sure how God manages to do this, because going through a time in the wilderness doesn’t feel fruitful at all. It just feels like a desert, like a kind of death. But maybe it’s a way we die to ourselves, so that God can raise us up stronger in the future.

Today we begin reading the book of Romans again. There is so much packed into this letter! As I read chapters 1 and 2, I find that many things I commented on six months ago are still things that stand out to me. How grace brings about “the obedience of faith (1:5).” How desperately we need to encourage one another and grow stronger in faith (1:11-12). How God’s invisible attributes have been clearly understood, but mankind has chosen to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator (1:20, 25). How we judge people for the things that we also do (2:1). How God’s kindness and forbearance is meant to lead us to repentance (2:4).

But even though these older favorite verses still sparkle, other verses also capture my attention. Verse 21 in chapter 1 says, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Several things strike me about this verse. First, that giving thanks to God is far more important than I may have ever realized. If I had been writing this verse, I would have simply said that the people did not honor God. They failed to recognize Him. But one of the ways we do recognize God is by the gifts that He gives us. We recognize creation — we recognize the goodness of the earth and the seas, the sun and the rain and the wind, animals and plant life — abundant food. If seeing these things does not inspire gratitude, then something is wrong.

One of the things that God has been teaching me over the past few years is just how important thanksgiving is. Gratitude is the key to so many things. It helps us honor and praise God. It transforms our mind and hearts. It helps us to remember what is truly important. It protects us from many kinds of sinful thoughts and behaviors. Ingratitude is an entirely selfish point of view. So, yes, what Romans 1:21 says is true. It wasn’t just that the people did not honor God even though the heavens give clear evidence of His existence; it was also that they had no gratitude.

The verse also teaches us that this dishonoring of God, combined with ingratitude, led to futility in their thinking. It led to their hearts being darkened. Both are fairly terrifying conditions. But this is what spiritual darkness is. This is what we pray against — why we pray for God to open someone’s eyes. But it’s also something that we must guard against — but the key to protecting us from these conditions is honoring God and giving thanks.

Verse 1:32 also strikes me. The Scripture tells us, “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” Even as people know in their hearts that God really does exist, they also know that wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity are against God’s righteous law and are things deserving of death. Yet, most grievous of all, they continue to practice evil and they actually approve of those that also do so. This verse makes me think of our society. Our culture celebrates many sexual practices today that would not have been celebrated a generation or two ago. And I am very torn. Because I understand that one of the reasons why our society wants to celebrate these things is in reaction to hatred, injustice, and wickedness — but two wrongs don’t make a right. I am haunted by this verse — that the wicked do wrong and approve of those who also do wrong. I wonder in what ways I sin in this respect. How to be loving and yet also stand against things that are wrong is a challenging thing to do.

Romans 2:13 also speaks to me. “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” We have such a disconnect between knowing and doing. That is part of the nature of sin. But we have hope because of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. As Paul says in verse 2:29, “Circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.”

Psalm 26 can sometimes be challenging to read. As the NIV translates verse 1, David says, “I have led a blameless life.” I struggle with the idea of being blameless, or innocent of wrongdoing. I can’t identify with that! A blameless life?!! But the CSB translates the same phrase, saying, “I have lived with integrity.” Now, that, I can agree with. Integrity doesn’t mean you’ve never failed or never done something wrong; it means that when you do so, you admit to your failings and make recompense if necessary.

When I read Psalm 26, sometimes all I see is how far short of this ideal I fall. But Christ meets the perfection described here. And because of Christ Jesus, and because of God’s faithfulness and steadfast love (v. 3), God will vindicate me. He will set my feet on level ground. And I will stand with the great assembly in heaven, praising Him!

Father God, thank you for Jesus Christ. Thank you that my faulty righteousness is not what I have to rely on; instead, I am perfectly covered by Christ’s righteousness. Thank you for your steadfast love and faithfulness. Thank you that one day I will stand vindicated by your grace. Thank you for how much you love us. Thank you for sending us Jesus. Continue to fill my heart with gratitude. Help me recognize all the many ways that you bless me. May I honor you and bring you glory by what I do and what I say. Remove sin and wickedness from me; fill me with your Holy Spirit and with your love for others. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.