Job 4-5

Dear RTB’ers,

Happy 4^th, y’all!! I’m taking a holiday today, no comments on today’s reading. However, in the past I’ve encouraged you to read John’s “See also…” passages. I strongly recommend those while we are in Job. Back in 2022 RTB did the Psalms and the Wisdom literature. John was the person who posted on Job – chapter by chapter. His comments back then (and again in 2023) are seriously worth reading. So when I post on these Job readings, make sure that you also go to John’s “See also…” passages and read his comments.

Again, HAPPY 4^th!!

Blessings!

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See also:

• February 4 (2022) / Job 4
• February 5 (2022) / Job 5
• August 27 (2023) / Job 3-5

Job 1-3

Dear RTB’ers,

Today we begin the book of Job. I recall reading that Job (the book) is the oldest written text in all of Scripture. The STS and my Study Bible introductions did not mention that, but I recall reading it somewhere in times past.

Today we have two chapters of prose and one of poetry, all of it fairly easily understood. Typically I am not a good reader of or commenter on poetry. John sends along his “See also…” comments every day; I am confident that his 2022 comments on Job will be more fruitful than whatever I have to say! So I encourage you to read his comments every day, but especially so while we are reading the book of Job.

Job is wealthy, seen by God as “blameless and upright” (v. 1:8). Satan claims that Job is good only because he has been blessed in his wealth and that Job has been protected by God from difficulties. So God lets Satan test Job and Job loses his property and his children. Job remains faithful: In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. (v. 1:22) Then Satan askes to torment Job further. So Satan affects Job physically. He … struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. (v. 2:7b) Still Job does not curse God, in spite of his wife’s encouragement to do so. Finally, three friends arrive to console Job, sitting silently and waiting to speak. In Job’s first words (chapter 3) he regrets that he was born, but then, acknowledging that his birth happened, wishes further that he had been stillborn and would be at rest with kings and counselors and infants and (even!) prisoners – the small and the great (v. 3:19). Job is not a happy man!

Blessings!

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See also:

• August 26 (2023) / Job 1-2
• Introduction to Job
• February 1 (2022) / Job 1
• February 2 (2022) / Job 2
• February 3 (2022) / Job 3

Ephesians 6:10-24

Dear RTB’ers,

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. (v. 11) This statement is the essence of the main item in today’s reading. Although it’s such an obvious point, my Study Bible pointed out that this body armor is for individual fighting and protection, as opposed to most of the battles that we read in Scripture of army against army. So this whole armor of God is there for us to do individual battle with the evil one. It’s interesting to go back to Isaiah 59, from where Paul draws two (or three) pieces of this body armor: The LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought Him salvation, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in zeal as a cloak. (Isaiah 59:15b-17) Interestingly, it is God Himself who is clothing Himself with this armor.

I’m going a bit off the mark here with a second comment. Paul asks his readers for prayer: …praying at all times in the Spirit, … making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel… (vv. 18a-19) Many of you heard Kelly this past Sunday announcing that I will be delivering the sermon at St. Andrew’s this coming Sunday, July 6. So, as Paul requests prayer for himself, so I also ask for your prayers for my preparation and my delivery. I’ve given economic lectures and presentations to hundreds of people, with very little nervousness in facing these audiences. Delivering a sermon over Scriptural texts, speaking to God’s people – it’s a bit more nerve-racking. So, I request your prayers on my behalf. Thank you for that.

Blessings!

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See also: December 20 (2023) / Ephesians 4:17-6:24.

Ephesians 5:3-6:9

Dear RTB’ers,

Happy July! Today we begin the second half of 2025 and the second half of our STS read through the Bible.

Paul gets very practical in all of today’s reading. It gets a bit confusing as to whether he is speaking only (or mostly) to the Gentiles in Ephesus or whether he is speaking to both Gentile and Jewish Christians. For example, sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talk, crude joking, (vv. 5:3, 4) could be more directed to the Gentile believers, in that temple prostitution and other ill behaviors seem to have been rampant in pagan rituals in Ephesus and throughout the Roman world. Or maybe I just have a more positive reference point with respect to Jewish people in Jesus’ time? Either way, the rest of today’s reading is practical teaching for both Gentile and Jewish Christians in Ephesus – and for us today! I especially like Paul’s balance when he speaks in pairs with respect to our individual behaviors: wives and husbands; children and parents; slaves and masters.

Echo! (I’ve mentioned “divine echoes” before, when we hear something repeated, often in another context, that could possibly reflect on our own outlooks and beliefs.) So today, an echo for all of us from Patrick’s sermon two days ago. He quoted II Timothy 4:3-4 about “itching ears”: For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (I’ve always liked the NASB translation, people “having their ears tickled”.) Today we read: Let no one deceive you with empty words… (v. 5:6a). Also, a verse from yesterday that I missed: …so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (v. 4:14) Patrick encouraged us to test what we hear, especially new ideas that are spoken from “authority”. Thankfully, what we hear from the pulpit at St. Andrew’s always seems to be “right on”! We are truly blessed in that regard.

Blessings!

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See also:

• November 1 (2021) / Ephesians 5:1-33
• November 2 (2021) / Ephesians 6:1-24

Ephesians 4:1-5:2

Dear RTB’ers,

Today, June 30, halfway through 2025 and halfway through our three-year Search the Scriptures journey through the entire Bible. Well done, those of us who began on January 1, 2024! Moving on…!

Having looked over the past two days at Paul’s calls for the Gentiles’ “equality” with the Jews, today we can now read the “you” and “one another” in today’s first two verses as being directed at both of these groups – Paul speaking to the entire Ephesian assembly of Christians with no distinction between the two. In fact, he underlines that point in his famous 7-fold “one” sentences: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all… (vv. 4:4-5). The distinctions that remain then are the gifts that God has bestowed on the body – apostles, prophets, etc., for the building up on that one unified body. [Please see Romans 12:6-8 and I Corinthians 12:4-11, 28-30 for additional listings of these spiritual gifts.]

The second half of chapter 4 is another well-known section of the New Testament – Paul’s “put off, put on” verses: put off your old self… and put on the new self, … put away falsehood [and] speak the truth… (vv. 4:22-25) He continues by listing additional contrary behaviors: Be angry and do not sin… Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor…; Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up. (vv. 4:26, 28, 29) Paul closes this chapter with words that we should all embrace: Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (vv. 4:31-32) Simply stated, be kind to one another…!

Blessings!

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See also:

• October 30 (2021) / Ephesians 4:1-16
• October 31 (2021) / Ephesians 4:17-32
• December 19 (2023) / Ephesians 1:1-4:16

Ephesians 3

Dear RTB’ers,

I wrote yesterday of Paul’s unity message in Ephesians: that the Gentiles are …no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (Eph. 2:19) He continues that theme in today’s reading, strengthening the Gentiles’ position by referring to them as …fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (v. 6) The NASB translation uses a “fellow” triad, in my mind more effectively: … that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers…

One of my Study Bibles makes a really good point about this level of Gentile-Jew unity: “That Gentiles would turn to the God of Israel and be saved was prophesied in the Old Testament (see Romans 15:9-12); that they would come into an organic unity with believing Jews on an equal footing was unexpected.” I would encourage you to go to that Romans citation and see the extent to which the Old Testament predicted that the Gentiles would be brought to faith, where Paul has references to Deuteronomy, II Samuel, Psalms, and Isaiah.

There is another point worth making with respect to these Old Testament verses. Earlier in this chapter Paul had written that this Gentile-Jew unity …was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. (v. 5) Imagine what Paul would say to us Gentiles today who are living two millennia later, we who have not only the Old Testament prophecies, but also the New Testament gospels and epistles and tons of research scholarship to reinforce that Gentile-Jew unity. If Paul could see the extent that the Gentile wing in this unity has (numerically) overwhelmed his Jewish Christian brothers – and the extent to which he had been the lead evangelist in this outcome – he would be amazed. He claimed to be the very least of all the saints (v. 8), but we can all be thankful for his evangelical zeal!

Blessings!

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See also: October 29 (2021) / Ephesians 3:1-21.

Ephesians 2

Dear RTB’ers,

I read in one of my Study Bibles that unity is one of the themes of Paul’s writing in Ephesians. We see that played out in today’s reading. In the last paragraph of the first chapter Paul had written to “you”, presumably referring to all of God’s people in Ephesus. He continues with that “you” in the first paragraph of today’s reading, but then switches to “you Gentiles” in verse 11. He continues his message to them in the rest of this chapter. Verse 12 is one of my favorite verses to read in all of Paul’s epistles: …you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. I love this description of the Gentiles’ earlier situation – separated, alienated, strangers, having no hope, and without God. But then he ends this chapter with his unity message, that these Gentiles are …no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God… (v. 19)

One more comment on today’s reading. Verses 8 and 9 are often quoted by believers: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. The intent in quoting these verses is to point out that Jesus has done it all – that there is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation. But I like to point out that Paul is not discounting our “works”, as he makes clear in the next verse: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (v. 10) Yes, with our salvation already assured, we still have work to do.

Blessings!

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See also: October 28 (2021) / Ephesians 2:1-22.

Ephesians 1:15-23

Dear RTB’ers,

…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation … that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might… (vv. 17-19) Paul’s writing often has a number of clauses and participial phrases in his sentences, such that it is often difficult to pick out the essence of a sentence that he has written. Somewhat hidden in the verses quoted above are three aspects of God’s relationship with us, His church – our hope, our inheritance, and His power. First, the hope to which He has called you (note that very personal “you”!). This is a hope that is an expectation, not some remote wish like “I hope I win the lottery.” Second, our inheritance, expressed as His inheritance for us (the saints). That inheritance is our eternal reward, living with Him in Heaven forever! Finally, His power, reflected in His raising Jesus from the dead. Then Paul adds four more verses glorifying Christ.

Don’t misunderstand me – those clauses and participial phrases in Paul’s writing include a lot of worthy content! But let’s not get caught up in all the verbiage such that we miss the main thought. Paul is often a tough read!!

Blessings!

Ephesians 1:1-14

Dear RTB’ers,

Back to the New Testament, Ephesians… One important item to note about this epistle right away is that Paul spent some 2-3 years living and preaching in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-10). [Read the whole of Acts 19 for a more complete account of his time there. It’s worth reading!] So although he is writing this letter from prison, he is well acquainted with his audience, both in Ephesus and in the six nearby cities that are mentioned in Revelation 2-3, who will probably also be reading this letter.

There is a ton of theology in these introductory verses – none of which I choose to discuss this morning. The verses that intrigued me today are those that get more personal: …we who were the first to hope in Christ… [and] …you also, when you … believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit… (vv. 12-13) The “we” at the beginning of these verses likely refers to those Jews who were Jesus’ first followers and those Jewish converts in the first couple of decades after Pentecost. But then it gets personal for me – for us! – with those two words, “you also”. No doubt Paul was referring to Gentile converts in Ephesus and the surrounding area, but you and I are among those who have believed in Him and also have subsequently been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. So, folks, as we read the rest of this letter, let’s imagine that Paul is writing to us. Yes, let’s make it personal!

Blessings!

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See also: October 27 (2021) / Ephesians 1:1-23.