Devotional Guide, Today’s Reading – Thursday, November 26, 2020

Theme: The Vice of Slander

Text:  “He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool. In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.” –  Proverbs 10:18, 19.

Comment: Some people sail under false colours, presenting a friendly attitude outwardly  but inwardly nursing evil against them. Such ones take pride in their ability to hide “hatred with lying lips”.  That is no virtue but a vice and those given to it should repent to be children of God indeed.  King David stated: “Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts….” (Psalm 28:3-5)  Those who slander their neighbours or carry false tales to cast aspersions on them do a lot of havoc in society. David suffered a lot from these misrepresentations, especially when he was being pursued from pillar to post by King Saul. 

 

 St. Paul said some people were spreading the lie (and were affirming they heard him say) “Let us do evil, that good may come” ! He asserted that such statements were slanderous and that the purveyors of such lies deserve damnation. (Romans 3:8) We should avoid slander and practice the truth so as to be saved. We pray God to help us withstand slander and not to do so ourselves, directly or indirectly. “An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.” – Proverbs 11:9. See also  Psalm 50:16-23.

Theme: COMMENTARY ON HEBREWS 11:32 - 40

Text:“For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.” – Jeremiah 32:3.

Comment: Because the king and people of Judah had given themselves to the worship of the devil, God Almighty used Jeremiah the prophet to warn them, telling them that if they would not repent, He would make Jerusalem and the temple they took pride in to suffer the fate of Shiloh, where the name of God was in earlier times before it was destroyed and abandoned. (Joshua 18:1; 19:51; 1Kings 14:2.) For warning the people against sin the leaders determined that Jeremiah must die. (Jeremiah 26:1-10) However, some of the elders, together with Ahikam, an officer of the king, intervened to prevent them from their wicked plot.

 

Again, when the Chaldeans besieged Jerusalem, Jeremiah was instructed by God to tell them to submit to their rule to avoid death and destruction. This was  seen as treason for which the leaders of the people convinced King Zedekiah to cast Jeremiah into.a well. But God also delivered him. When we stand up for the truth, even in the face of danger, God will give us victory in the end. St. Paul in his writings recalled God delivered them “from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:10).. He added that God Almighty shall deliver him “from every evil work, and will preserve him unto his heavenly kingdom. –  2 Timothy 4:18

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