Love of God means hatred of evil. Ceilon Aspensen, March 11, 2024March 11, 2024 The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is [write it here]. My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this: Numbers 23 & 24: The story of Balaam continues, and he ends up blessing Israel instead of cursing them. John 2: Jesus turns water to wine, and then cleanses the temple of money changers. Psalms 70: A prayer for help in time of distress. Proverbs 8: “Fear of Yahweh means hatred of evil.” In Numbers 23 and 24, we continue with the story of Balaam and discover that not only is Balaam prevented from cursing Israel, he is compelled to bless them! God turns what Balak had meant for evil into good. That’s a profound message for you and me. Not only will no weapon formed against us prosper, but the evil others mean for us will be turned to good. In John, we see once again his first miracle at the Wedding in Cana, where he turns water into wine. Then John tells a story not told in the other three gospels. Jesus drives the money changers out of the temple market, where people would buy animals for sacrifice. If you do some outside reading on this, some Bible scholars say that the issue Jesus had with this practice was not that animals were made available for purchase for sacrifice, so that people could perform the rituals required in the temple, but that they probably had brought their own animals for sacrifice and had then been told they weren’t good enough and would have to buy a replacement from the temple market. This was just one more way the Pharisees were taking advantage of the people they were meant to serve. When the Jews ask Jesus what authority he has to do such a thing, he tells them that if they destroy the temple he will raise it back up in three days. It took forty-six years to build the temple, so they scoff at this answer, but he was speaking of the temple of his body, and of his death and resurrection. John finishes this chapter with a brief paragraph about Jesus’ ability to see into the hearts of every person and know what they are about. Once again, we see that John is concerned with the mystical Jesus, the one who is more than mere man; the one who is God on Earth. Proverbs 8 is a Wisdom poem, full of clues about what wisdom looks like, and how to choose it. It concludes with an open invitation to all to choose Wisdom. In verse 23 we read, “Fear of Yahweh means hatred of evil. I hate pride and arrogance, wicked behavior and a lying mouth.” This is the perfect tie-in to what Jesus did in the temple and what John said about him in the concluding paragraph of chapter 2. It tells us that those who have evil in their hearts do not have God in their hearts. Being a discerner of the hearts of people, that is what Jesus was angry about at the temple. The people who were taking advantage of people coming to the temple to cleanse themselves of their sins were acting out of pure evil. They were wolves in sheep’s clothing. That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today? To participate in a discussion about the posts, please join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day. If you haven’t gotten the FREE “Read the Bible in a Year” worksheet yet, you can download it here. It is not necessary for you to start on January 1st–you can start from the beginning on whatever date you get the worksheet. Join us! Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit. This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.” To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts. ——————————————————— * Please follow and like us: Read the Bible in a Year Spiritual Practice changechange for the betterchristianchristianityencounter with Godpositive changeread the biblesacrificespiritual