Day 345 Bible Readings - Proverbs 24: 33-34 (ESV)

Esther 1 & 2, Revelation 2: 18-29, Revelation 3: 1-6, Proverbs 24: 23-34

Proverbs 24: 33-34 (ESV)

“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.”

In verses 33 and 34 from Proverbs 24, the Wise men tell us what the effects are of being lazy. In the prior two verses, the Wise men see the property of a lazy person and notice that the property is not well kept. The vineyard is overgrown with thorns, the ground is covered with nettles, and the stone wall is broken. The Wise men tell us if you just sleep a little too much, maybe take too many naps, and you do not work as hard as you should, then poverty will rob you of your wealth.

I used to think that it was worse that if you were totally lazy and didn’t do anything, you would be poor. But according to the Wise men, even a little bit of laziness and carelessness will lead you to poverty as well. I don’t think that the Wise men are saying you can’t take breaks and have vacations, but you have to continue to work hard or your property will be not well maintained and your laziness will rob you of everything you’ve worked hard for in your life.

Day 344 Bible Readings – Proverbs 24: 19-20 (ESV)

Zechariah 12-14, Revelation 2: 1-17, Proverbs 24: 15-22

Proverbs 24: 19-20 (ESV)

“Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.”

Verses 19 and 20 from Proverbs 24 remind us not to pay attention to people who do evil or are wicked. I know for myself that I tend to pay attention to people who seem to be evil or wicked, because I want to be there to see them fail. I want to see for myself God’s justice on these types of people. But Solomon tells us that we can’t worry about evildoers or the wicked getting punished. Solomon tells us that God’s punishment will come for them, as the evildoer and the wicked have no future. We cannot spend our lives wanting these people to get punished. God has his own timing, and the ways of the God are truly inscrutable. We have to trust that God will keep his promises and punish these people. But even if we were to watch these types of people, I’m not sure we would even know when they are being punished because God can punish them in his own way and in a way that we do not understand. We can never truly see into another person’s life and heart, only God can do that. But as we trust in God to punish those who do not follow his laws, we can also trust that will take care of the people that do dwell and follow his laws. We need to worry more about our behavior and relationship with God, and not with anyone else’s relationship or behavior.

Day 343 Bible Readings – Zechariah 9:9 (ESV)

Zechariah 9-11, Revelation 1, Proverbs 24: 1-14

Zechariah 9:9 (ESV)

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

I love verse 9 from Zechariah 9 because it is another prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. According to Bible commentaries, only royalty rode on donkeys. Christ was a king and a messiah when he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. I find it so interesting that there are many prophecies of the coming of Jesus Christ in the book of the Old Testament.

People in the time of Jesus knew the words of the Old Testament. It makes me wonder if they connected the prophecies of a messiah coming to them when they saw the things in life of Jesus that were reflected in these prophecies. In the two new “Dune” movies, they depicted how people connected the prophecies of their messiah to Paul Atreides by the things that Paul was doing in their lives. Did people in the time of Jesus connect their prophecies in the Old Testament of the coming of a messiah was wondrously as they did the Dune movies? I often ask myself if I had lived in the time of Jesus, would I have been able to connect the Old Testament prophecies to the life of Jesus. If I lived at that time, how would I have responded to the healing miracles of Jesus. Would I have become a believer and follower of Jesus? Or would I have been a sceptic? I like to think I would have become a follower, but I’ll never know.

Day 342 Bible Readings for December 9 – Zechariah 5: 1-4 (ESV)

Zechariah 5-8, Jude 1, Proverbs 23: 29-35

Zechariah 5: 1-4 (ESV)

“Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll! And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits. ”Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.”

In verses 1 through 4 from Zechariah 5, the prophet Zechariah has a vision of flying scroll. I love this image of the flying scroll which sounds like it has the 10 commandments written on it. The scroll has the names of the people who have violated the commandments of Thou shall not steal and Thou shall not swear false witness against thy neighbor. The scroll will then fly around and enter the sinners’ houses and burn them down, including the timber and stones.

Zechariah’s vision reminds that God keeps tracks of who violates these commandments and will send punishment to these people and judge them according to their crimes. The punishment that God sends will be appropriate to the commandment broken. If you steal and bear false witness against your neighbor, you will lose everything you possess since your sin deprived others of their possessions. In modern parlance, some would call this scenario “karma.”