Will you honor God's rule?

New Guest: Like this one, most posts are devotional; those related to CAR BIZ can be found by searching for that title. You might start with 'Welcome,' the first post in the archives, dated November 12, 2008, where I introduce myself and the blog.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Devotions: Ps 72; 119:73-96; Neh 13:4-22; Rev 12:1-12; Mt 13:53-58

Solomon wrote: Give Your justice, O God, to Your king; may he judge Your people with righteousness and the poor with justice. Let Your land provide richly for the people; may the king defend the poor, deliver the needy, and crush oppressors. Give him long life, and may he be to his land as rain to the fields; may righteousness and peace abound. May his foes bow before him, and many kings pay him tribute. For he serves God; long may he live. May prayer be made for him continually and blessings evoked upon him all day long. May his name endure and his fame continue as long as the sun will shine. Blessed be YHWH, God of Israel; may His glory fill all the earth! Amen and Amen. Lord, Your hands fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments. I know You judge rightly and act faithfully. Let Your steadfast love comfort me and Your mercy come to me, that I may live and delight in Your law! Let the godless be put to shame, who ignore You; as for me, I will meditate on Your precepts and worship with those who honor You. I languish as I wait upon You. I am like a dry wineskin in the smoke—yet I have not forgotten Your statutes. Recurrently, enemies have almost made an end of me on earth, but I will not forsake Your precepts. Lord, in Your steadfast love, continue to spare my life, that I may honor You. Your word is eternal, fixed forever; Your faithfulness endures to all generations. I will never forget Your precepts; I belong to You!

Eliashib, a priest in God’s temple, had conspired with Tobiah, and had allotted to him a chamber in the temple, where previously, tithes and offerings to YHWH had been stored. When Nehemiah returned from a period serving Artaxerxes in his capital, he threw Tobiah’s possessions out of the temple chamber, cleansed and purified the room, and returned the vessels of God’s house and His offerings to their appointed place. He also discovered that the Levites were not receiving their appointed portions, and remonstrated with the responsible officials. Nehemiah restored the temple service and staff, and appointed responsible treasurers and overseers to supervise the storehouses. He warned Judeans to cease their winemaking and other labors on the Sabbath, and ended commerce at the city gates on the holy day. He restored Sabbath observance in the city, among both Jews and Gentiles. And Nehemiah asked God to remember his faithful service to God and God’s house.

John’s apocalypse continues: He saw a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, crowned with twelve stars. She was pregnant, and cried out as she labored. A great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns appeared, crowned with seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the heavenly stars and cast them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman, seeking to devour her child when she brought it forth. She gave birth to a son, One Who will rule the nations with an iron rod, and the child was caught up to God and His throne, while the woman fled into the wilderness, to a refuge prepared for her by God; there, she would be protected and nourished for 1260 days. War broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and his angels. The great dragon—that ancient serpent called the Devil and Satan, deceiver of the world—and his angels were defeated and thrown down to earth. And a loud voice proclaimed in heaven: ‘Now the salvation and power and kingdom of our God and the power and authority of His Messiah have come: for the accuser of our brothers has been cast down, who accuses them day and night before our God. They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved God more than their lives, and died in their faith. Rejoice, heaven and all heavenly beings! Woe to you, earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, for he knows his time is short!’

Jesus journeyed to His home town, Nazareth, and taught in the synagogue there. The people were astonished, asking, ‘Where did this man get such wisdom and miracle-working power? This is the carpenter’s son, right? We know his mother, Mary, and his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. All his sisters are among us, aren't they? Where did this man get all this, then?’ They took offense at Jesus; but He said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country and his own household.’ And He did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.