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Consider the Ant

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I was challenged recently to justify Proverbs 6:6-8, which reads as follows: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." The challenge, as might be guessed, was not to the instruction of the verse but to the statement that the ant has "no guide, overseer, or ruler". Don't we know that ants have queens? Therefore is it not an error in the Bible to say that the ant has no ruler? Let's consider the verse itself first, and what it means to say that the ant has no guide, overseer, or ruler. The context is the work of the individual ant, and the verse is saying that insofar as this activity is concerned, the ant is independent and free rather than following a leader, being driven by a taskmaster, or obeying the command of a ruler. They are wise because they know the benefit of preparing now, when conditions are good, for...
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Isn't it Proud to Want to Be Like God?

It occurred to me today that the New Testament is all about being like God. It begins with Jesus who is the exact image of God and it moves on to tell us that through His atoning death for our sins, burial, and resurrection from the dead, we can be born again and receive His Spirit, which means we can become the sons of God and walk even as He walked. This is absolutely tremendous, but I thought about it from a slightly different angle today. Jesus taught His disciples to be perfect and that means going beyond what is 'just enough' to what is full and overflowing . It may be 'just enough' to greet those who are your friends and like-minded, but it is full and overflowing to greet those who are outsiders and differ, as well. He gives a number of examples to illustrate this but at the heart of His message is that we should be like this because our Father in heaven is like this. We are truly His children if we walk in likeness to Him. But the scandal of it occurred to...
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MORE THAN COMMANDMENTS

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Have you ever wondered why the Ten Commandments repeatedly say, "Thou Shalt Not"? Not, "Thou should not," or "Thou must not," but, "Thou shalt not."  "Should", speaks of what is right, and "Must" speaks of what is commanded, but both what is right and what is commanded may be disobeyed. That there is a difference in meaning between these words and "shall" is evident, although we tend to gloss over it as though it were merely a rhetorical flourish.  The Bible never uses words solely for rhetorical flourish, as those words would be vain.  Everything is meaningful.  When the prophet asks, "And the prophets, do they live for ever?" (Zech 1:5b), the rhetorically implied answer is no but the true answer is also yes.  So let us look at the commonly understood rhetorical meaning first. The Commandments were given to the children of Israel to be obeyed. But the Israelites failed to obey, making and bowing down to a ...
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