August 27 ▪ Day 239

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 22:6
Joshua 19–20
I Corinthians 5–6
Psalms 55

Verse Focus (Proverbs 22:6)

Start children off on the way they should go,
     and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Meditation

Our Proverb focus today is from chapter 22, verse 6. It speaks of both the importance and the impact of raising your children with the values and disciplines of a godly life. As the NIV translates this verse, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” My father ate oatmeal for breakfast most of his life because that’s how he was raised. When I saw him fixing oatmeal in his 80s, I would think of Proverbs 22:6. The power of early-childhood training never ceases to amaze me!

Of course, rearing your children in the “right” way is not infallible. After all, most children will go through a rebellious phase where they ignore their training and may even do the very opposite of what they were taught. But once they’ve had a chance to test the waters, they will likely discover for themselves the wisdom of the things they were taught in childhood. It may take years and years and years, or it may be a matter of just a few months.

As we’ve also discussed before, proverbs are general principles about how things typically work in God’s universe. They are not promises or guarantees. Yet this verse contains wisdom that no one can afford to ignore. Even if you don’t have children yourself, this is an important principle for all of us to remember.

To some extent, I think this proverb is speaking of the power of habits to control the kind of life you lead. Even today, I think much of my day-to-day struggle relates to getting rid of bad habits and establishing better ones. And if you can form those good habits when you are young, so much the better!

Father God, we pray for all parents to have wisdom in rearing their children. May they establish good habits, good patterns, and good disciplines in their own lives and in the lives of their children. May parents teach their children about you and about how to pray and how to seek you. May those of us without children also be wise in our habits and wholesome in our values. Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit to transform our lives for the better. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Joshua chapter 19 covers the distribution of land to the remaining six tribes of Israel: Simeon, Zebulon, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan. The chapter also details an inheritance that is given to Joshua son of Nun: the town of Timnath-serah (v. 50). The land is distributed by lot at Shiloh, which was where the Tabernacle resided for the first several hundred years that the Israelites were in the Promised Land.

The first interesting note is that the inheritance for Simeon was given in the middle of the territory previously given to Judah. Verse 9 comments on this, saying, “Because the portion of the people of Judah was too large for them.”

The other thing I noticed was that Dan was the last tribe to receive their lot. After Judah, Dan was the second largest tribe. And they apparently inherited the land of the Canaanites ruled by the Philistines. It was contested land, but the tribe had enough warriors that they should have been able to hold on to their inheritance. They were not successful, however, and so they ended up seizing other land in the far north (mentioned in verse 47, but told in more detail in Judges chapter 18).

Joppa, also known as Jaffa, was one of the cities that was granted to Dan in their original inheritance. It was a seaport, and features in a number of Biblical stories. The city is mentioned in the book of Jonah as the place the prophet went to find a ship to flee from the LORD instead of going to Nineveh like he was supposed to do. It also comes up in 2 Chronicles 2 and Ezra 3 as the place where imported cedar from Lebanon would arrive. Finally, the city features in Acts 9 and 10 as the place where Peter went to first extend the message of the gospel to the Gentiles.

Joshua chapter 20 reviews the regulations about cities of refuge, where those who accidentally kill someone may flee for safety. There is a trial, and if it is found that the death occurred without malice, the person who committed the manslaughter may live in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest. The chapter names the six cities that will fulfill this function. The three cities on the eastern side of the Jordan River — “Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland, from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh (v. 8)” — were named earlier in Deuteronomy 4:41-43. But now they also appoint three more cities: “Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron [Caleb’s city]) in the hill country of Judah (v. 7).”

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul addresses the sexual immorality in the Corinthian church. It is primarily the actions of one individual that is at the root of this sin, but Paul takes exception to how the entire church has responded to this particular individual. He reminds them that it only takes a small amount of leaven before the entire batch is affected; similarly, it may be only one person who is sinning by sleeping with his father’s wife, but the impurity will infect the entire church. He tells the church that they should avoid associating with immoral believers.

Paul’s comments about judging other believers may come as a shock to some readers. In our contemporary semi-Christian society, we have this idea that all judgment is bad. On the contrary, in John 7:24 Jesus tells us, “Stop judging falsely, and learn to judge rightly.” Just like the difference between godly wisdom and worldly wisdom, there is a difference between good judgment and bad judgment. And godly wisdom will teach us good judgment. One question to ask ourselves is whether our perspective is that of condemnation or forgiveness.

In chapter 6, Paul raises yet another issue plaguing the church: lawsuits among believers. He is shocked that they are taking their disputes through the court system at Corinth. Have the believers no wisdom for settling matters privately? He tells us that believers will “judge the world (v. 2)” and that we are also to “judge angels (v. 3).” Clearly, it is not avoidance of judgment that we need, but true discernment. Even more significant, however, is that in insisting upon our own rights, we are missing the point of the gospel. Godly living is already defeated by this attitude. As Paul asks in verse 7, “Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?”

Paul calls for believers to flee from sexual immorality. All sin has ramifications and impacts, but sexual sin is a type of sin that hurts our own physical bodies. He reminds us that we do not belong to just ourselves. We were bought “with a price (v. 20)” — by the death of God’s own Son. For this reason, we strive to glorify God with our bodies as well as with our hearts and minds.

Psalm 55 is comforting to read when we are feeling distressed or in anguish. Life has a way of piling up on you so that you long to just run away and flee. The words of verse 6 resonate: “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.” Even if we don’t feel the need to escape at the present moment, we can all remember times in our lives when we did feel this way.

While I can’t bring to mind a time when I felt as personally betrayed by a friend as David did in this psalm, it is, unfortunately, an all-too-common experience for many. Marital infidelity, a broken confidence, theft of belongings, or of your name and reputation, are just a few of the situations that crush our souls. So what do we do with that hurt and anger? Where does the pain go? Only God may carry these burdens. Only God can punish evildoers, heal our hearts, and redeem the sorrow. As David says at the end of the psalm, “I will trust in you.”

Father God, we trust you with our sorrow. We pray for those who have hurt us. May we learn to forgive. May we not enter into lawsuits, but recognize that Christ shows us a better way. We pray for your Holy Spirit to be within us. Give us the wisdom that comes from you; help us to recognize when we are being deceived by the world. Enable us to judge rightly. Help us flee from sin and temptation. Thank you for your love. Thank you that you will never let us go and never abandon us. Thank you for your faithfulness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.