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The Agora
Daily Bible Reading Exhortations

December 23

Other comments on this day's readings can be found here.

Reading 1 - Job 32

"So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite said: 'I am young in years, and you are old; that is why I was fearful, not daring to tell you what I know' " (Job 32:6).

In vv 6-22, Elihu addresses the three -- giving his reasons for intervention.

God's endorsements of Elihu's words:

YAHWEH	ELIHU
Cp Job 42:7 with...	Job 32:3,7
Cp Job 42:3 with...	Job 34:35; 38:2
Cp Job 40:2 with...	Job 32:2; 33:9-13
Cp Job 40:8 with...	Job 32:2
Cp Job 40:14 with...	Job 33:9; 35:2
Cp Job 41:10; 42:3 with...	Job 33:31-34

Reading 2 - Zec 8:16,17

"The LORD had determined to do good to Jerusalem instead of the evil He had given them because of their wickedness. But to ensure that the good He gave them was going to continue, there were four small but challenging things He asked them to do:

Speak the truth to each other. Grumbling behind each other's backs, misleading people, gossip and lies seem to be the normal standard of speech for the world today. But it must be different for us. The NT adds to this instruction when it tells us to 'speak the truth in love.'
Render true and sound judgement in your courts. 'The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.' This phrase and swearing on the Bible do not mean what they used to. But we must do our part to be true.
Do not plot evil against your neighbour. Climbing the corporate ladder and getting rid of neighbourly nuisances are both ways we can be sucked into plotting evil. Be kind and compassionate instead.
Do not love to swear falsely. Instead we must delight in doing what is right and just.

"Do these things and be well on the way to being pleasing to the LORD" (Robert Prins).

Reading 3 - Rev 5:3-5

"But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals' " (Rev 5:3-5).

"And there was found none worthy to do so, neither an angel in heaven, nor any mortal man on earth, nor any of past generations now buried under the earth. Well might John weep! The situation emphasized that redemption and the reading of a Book of Life could never come by angelic ministration nor by the efforts of any mortal man, nor by the self-sacrifice of those prepared to die for others, but in one way and one way only -- through the death of a divinely provided sacrifice (v 6). Is it exaggeration or presumption or blasphemy to suggest that even divine omnipotence and omniscience could have devised no other means to bring about human redemption than that Purpose which is being worked out in Christ?" (Harry Whittaker, "Revelation").