Your Bible is a check and cross check of reference notes. If we use it correctly, we will not be jumping to half-hearted conclusions.
Here is one example.
I came upon this verse recently…now you might think that is surprising, since I have read and re-read my Bible in lots of different versions. However, God has a way of pointing out things that you didn’t notice the tenth time through.
It started with Joshua 24:9-10. Joshua is reminding the Israelites of how God has led them through these many years.
When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. But I (God) would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I (God) delivered you out of his hand.
I queried myself. Did this mean that someone could curse me and if God was in the right humour, he would let that power fall on me? To clarify this though, I looked up all the places the word curse is used in scripture. (See Biblegateway.com)
In Numbers 23:8, I discovered that you can’t call down a curse on anyone that God has not cursed. Joshua 23 points out that Israel cannot be cursed.
Then-Lamentations 3:37, “Who can speak and have it happened, if the Lord has not decreed it?”
You have as little to fear from an undeserved curse as from the dart of a wren or the swoop of a swallow. (Proverbs 26:2, MSG)
And now I understand that God does not pay attention to anyone trying to curse me. That is how you use your Bible.
Prayer-Father, thank you for the many ways you speak to us through your Holy Word, the Bible. Amen.
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