EMMAUS SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES

All of us have questions. We aren’t thinking if we think we understand everything. God invites these questions, and the book of Habakkuk affirms that. Habakkuk also reveals the posture with which we should approach questioning God.

Habakkuk looked around and saw immense suffering and violence. He didn’t understand why God seemed absent and uncaring. God responded by telling him that he was going to use the wicked nation of Babylon to take care of the violence and injustices in Israel. This was not a desired, or expected, answer. While wrestling through God’s response, we see Habakkuk’s heart. In the end, he praises God – not for his continued confusion, but because of his trust in God’s character.

I have been in a place where I have questioned the goodness of God. Surrounding a tragic death, I deeply wrestled with the question of whether God has our best interest at heart and if he really does work all things for our good as scripture promises. I wanted so badly to believe it was true. However, it didn’t feel true in the slightest. I read books about it, and threw a couple of them against the wall. I was never angry with God, but I didn’t feel like trusting him. As I went to him with my questions, my frustrations, my hurt, and my pain, he met me there. For me, it finally came to a point where I had to choose to trust God’s character and choose to praise him regardless of my feelings, recognizing that my feelings do not determine what is true.

Over time, he settled my heart. I still have some unanswered questions, like Habakkuk clearly did, but like Habakkuk, the Lord gave me his peace concerning his character. I have come to a place where I genuinely believe that God is good, and that our circumstances do not dictate his love for us or his goodness. God wants to meet us in our pain and questions and for us to be brutally honest with him. However, as the creatures, we must come to the creator with a posture of humility. In that place, he will meet us.

So often in this life, things are evil, bad, wicked, etc. and we question whether God exists, b/c the evil exists. However, just because there is a presence of evil in the world, doesn’t mean that the presence of God is absent. Rather, it means that they are co-existing.

            So, when we are wondering at the presence of evil in this life, much as Habakkuk did in his days, we should keep in mind that God is still very much alive and active in our world. He may not be destroying all evil and wickedness, because in order to do that, he would have to destroy the whole earth and all who live in it. Instead, though, he is being merciful in allowing life to continue for a time, no matter how evil it may be, for the purpose of people repenting and being saved by Him. Thus, it is really in his mercy that God is allowing evil to continue to exist in this world. For he wants to destroy it far more than we want it destroyed! He could wipe it out in an instant, but this would require all earth wiped out too, because it is all wicked; the only pure and perfect thing is God himself.

Therefore, we should realize that while wickedness is on this earth for a time, God himself is here too. And this means that he is still giving a chance for mercy and forgiveness, for those who haven’t received it yet.

            The very fact that God is still abiding in this earth, while the evil exists too, is amazing, because he hates it so much, yet chooses to remain alongside his creation, to try and save them! How merciful and loving God is! Instead of wiping earth out, like he wants to, he is choosing to patiently wait, until more people are saved from the sin, through faith in Him.

            This is why things in this life will continue to remain evil, bad, wicked, etc. forever, until God finally wipes them out at the 2^nd coming, and his believers are taken away. 

The book of Habakkuk in the words of our teacher Scott Pitts is a book that “doesn’t technically have to be in the Bible because it is concerning an issue that has been dealt with already but clearly the Lord wanted it in there to prove that God’s ways may not conform to the ways we want him to do things, but they are for the best.” What I like about this thought is that it completely relates to what is going on in our world currently and the mentality of those who may be frightened by the decline of our economy and who may be wanting to blame God for it.  As we see in Habakkuk, God is speaking of the destruction that is going to come upon the nation of Judah and as horrible as it is, Habakkuk recognizes that the Lord’s justice and love for his people would not lead him to do anything that isn’t for their best interest and therefore he continues to exalt him.  I think sometimes we get too prideful and think that we “know” what would be best for us, but we must remember where our knowledge came from.  Have we somehow miraculously grown to be wiser than God? No.  Therefore, instead of wanting to curse God for bringing on such hardships, maybe we should run to him for comfort and thank him that he is still pursuing us and trying to bring us back to himself. We are a sinful people and the Lord doesn’t have any reason to love us the way he does, but yet his love continues, so who are we to distrust his motives? We must run to him and rest in the assurance that the Lord will bring grow in these hard times!

As I studied Jeremiah, his character evolved and developed into a man who I admire and aspire to become. He was a courageous, bold, truthful, and obedient to God’s calling. While all those characteristics are admirable, it seems his love and surrendered life to God undergirds them all and it is these aspects of his character that drive him towards obedience. Ultimately it is these characteristics that Christ manifests, which compel me to follow him and his life.

Jeremiah was an intensely loving man. He engaged with people and warned them, even when they did not care. He was told that they would not listen, yet for his 40 plus years of ministry, he persisted in declaring God’s word to them. He saw the people fall from a spiritual climate pleasing to God under King Josiah, to utter rejection of the faith and God’s law under King Zedekiah. Through it all, he persisted in loving them. This love was demonstrated in his willingness to speak truth to them – no matter the cost. He was thrown into a cistern full of mud, imprisoned, and ultimately stoned by the people he was set on loving. He followed them to Egypt when he knew it was not in their best interest – but most likely went because of his insistence to speak truth to them in love. By that point, he should have been calloused. Everyone would have thought him justified to reject the people and pursue something that brought him pleasure. Instead, he continued to stay lovingly engaged with them. He loved them so much that he was willing to risk his life. After his release from prison, he continued to speak God’s word to King Zedekiah, who had the power to kill him on the spot. He valued their lives and them coming back to God more than his own. Jesus Christ demonstrated this as well. The apostle John tells us that he loved humanity so much that he was willing to give up his own life so that we could be reconciled to God. What men.

Coupled with love for the people was a love for God. Jeremiah demonstrated his love for God through his obedience to his calling and his surrendered will to God’s. As a young boy, he was called by God to be a prophet to the nations. Feeling inadequate and ill-equipped, he accepted God’s calling and prioritized that over everything else in his life. He was called to never marry or have children, and to live a life of unpopulariy and hatred. Because of his message, he would most likely never have friends, or share in life’s joys with anyone. Yet he continued to obey God. He valued God’s purposes and plans over his own. He was called to risk his own life for the sake of others, and it ultimately cost him his. Because of this, it seems God blessed him with a deep intimacy with himself. He got to experience God’s frustrations, loves, and emotions. God made him rely on him alone and look to him for his joy. Because of his persistence and diligence to obey God over everything else, it seems God delivered. While as a young boy he probably had dreams of a family and the life he would live, he chose God’s ways. He willingly forsake all of those to pursue God’s plans, revealing his deep trust in God and the superiority of his plans. Likewise, Christ demonstrated this same trust and obedience to God’s calling. He lived a perfect, sinless life, and utimately gave it up – according to God’s will. We see the struggle and submission he exemplified in the garden of Gethsemene. While pain, suffering, and death were not ideal, he surrendered to his Father’s will, rooted in a deep love for people.

With Jeremiah as a foreshadow to the surrendered and loving life of Christ, I am challenged to live such a life. I see how Christ relentlessly loved and pursued us, and ultimately surrendered his will so that we could be reconciled to God. What this mostly produces in me is a perspective change. The Lord has been tugging at my heart all year long towards a complete surrender of will. While surrender of will, possessions, and dreams are one aspect, Jeremiah has challenged me to see the joy in following God. Although he never explictly praises God for such a calling, his life of surrender shows the deep value of surrender and the intimacy with God that it produces. And this is joy. Knowing and sharing in God’s heart. If God brings me to a point of surrendering my plans and dreams, I can trust his sovereignty and goodness. In tragedy and in calling, I can trust his goodness. His plans and ways really are best, and I dare not let my near-sightedness get in the way of my obedience to God. He is far grander, powerful, and loving than I could ever know, so I will choose to err on the side of faihfulness to his ways, not my own. Ironically, the book of Jeremiah has produced in me an excitement to follow God and surrender to him. Because I trust he is a good God, I want the life he has called me to - whether one marked by tragedy or by excitement. I trust he is for me and really does have my best interest at heart. Compared to two years ago, this is revolutionary for me. I now deeply trust the character of God and the goodness of his sovereignty.

I am excited to follow him, and I am excited to surrender my will and love others like Jeremiah and Jesus, loving at all costs. I want to be a relentless lover of people and follower of God. 

Jeremiah follows God consistently throughout his whole life, yet he ends up never being heeded, and eventually being killed by his fellow Judeans! So why is this? He obeyed God, shouldn’t he have had success? If you believe that God promises physical success and blessings, then this will never match up; Jeremiah’s life is a direct contrast to that belief.

            However, if you recognize that God has promised his people, not physical blessings, but SPIRITUAL blessings for all believers, then you will realize that this promise is consistently better! For, all people, both believers and unbelievers, live in a fallen world affect by sin, that will never be perfect until Jesus’ 2^nd coming when he will restore perfection in the physical realm. However, the fact that believers have spiritual blessings in Christ NOW means that even throughout their life, whether it is easy or hard, they can still experience peace, love, joy, patience, self-control, etc. in this life on earth. Even when other people are experiencing instability and confusion in their physical lives, those who have Christ do not need to be, because their stability is not in themselves or the world, but in Christ.

            Therefore, we do not have to fear the ups and downs of life and whether we will ever experience health, prosperity, etc. What we do have here on earth is so much better – spiritual blessings that get us through our imperfect physical life, and cause stability and peace in such an unstable and chaotic world!

            Now, of course, God can bless us physically just as well as spiritually, but he never promised us that he would. The fact is that our world is still affected by sin, and is not perfect. Therefore, we should not EXPECT that our physical lives would be perfect just because we believe in God, but rather, we can EXPECT perfection in our spiritual lives. This is because Jesus has given us a new heart, but our new bodies will be given to us after he conquers death at the 2^nd coming. Therefore, we can endure with every spiritual blessing and perfection we have in Christ, until our physical perfection is complete! 

                To truly give justice to the tremendous value that is found in the book of Jeremiah is impossible to accomplish in a simple blog entry; in fact, trying to summarize it would be like trying to describe how to build a house in one sentence-there are too many precious, intricate details that need to be revealed in order to see how it all comes together to complete the masterpiece.  One huge application point that really stuck with me, however, was the understanding of God’s mercy.  Not that I have never understood it before, but for the first time, I saw it through the eyes of a dirty sinner, myself. 

In the second chapter of Jeremiah, God is talking about how the Israelites once knew him and worshiped him and now that have completely turned away.  As I rehearsed Israel’s unfaithfulness through history I realized how disheartening it had to have been to God to see that he brought them out of slavery in Egypt, provided for them as they whined in the wilderness, then brought them into a plentiful new land and gave them victory over all their enemies. As soon as they looked around at all the other nations, they saw things that they wanted of theirs, namely their form of government, and they began to fall away.  Then against God’s will he gave them kings and as soon as they took over, they began to trust in the strength of other nations to protect them instead of God and the more they did that the more they fell away.  God in his kindness decided to send prophets to warn them of their impending danger and they ignored them, even when they saw the predictions coming true (like the fall of Israel).  Israel was ignorant, prideful and completely unloving and yet when anyone asked for forgiveness God gave it at the drop of a hat.

So as I am applying this to myself I realize that I am just as horrible as the people of Israel.  I am selfish, ignorant and unloving to God at times and yet as soon as I own up to it the Lord forgives.  He doesn’t sit around and think about it, or base his forgiveness on how much or little I have sinned in the past, or expect me to be a Bible scholar to be forgiven, he says, you are my child and I am so happy you have come back to me!  What is embarrassing to admit is how long it takes me to forgive people sometimes, even for the pettiest things.  I want to forgive them on conditions, “only if it never happens again, etc.” but what if put that condition on us? We would have no hope.  So the value of God’s mercy is rooted in the truth that I am in NO way deserving of it and yet it comes with no price! This is a mercy beyond comprehension!

I would have to say that the big issue that I was intrigued with in Chronicles was the lack of generational transfer of commitment to the Lord with the kings of Judah.  This is so sad and eye opening.  It always makes you ask “why”.  Was this because of the parents?  Was this because of the child just not yielding to the Lord and rejecting his parents’ teaching?  Some times this answer is hard to figure out since the text may be silent on the reasons on the lack of transfer.  But if you think back to Eli.  His sons were wicked.  Then you have Samuel who saw what happened to Eli and his family because his sons were wicked and yet Samuel’s own sons were wicked.  Eli and Samuel both are not in the books of Chronicles but there is some inside info on them that can maybe be helpful for understanding the kings.  One thing that is significant about both Eli and Samuel’s families was that even when their sons were wicked they were still all in leadership.  Eli’s sons were wicked and still priests.  Their father did not like what they were doing but never took them out of leadership.  Samuel’s sons were wicked and still judges.  Their father also did not like what they were doing but never took them out of leadership either.  So you could say that maybe their fathers did not teach them about the Lord very well or you could say that their fathers did but the sons choose not to follow in their ways but one thing is for sure their fathers, when realizing the wickedness of their sons, did not remove them from leadership when it was in their power to do so.  That is a huge fault on the fathers part.  You then see this idea in David too.   After David’s sin with Bathsheba, and then was forgiven, he does not deal well with the sin in his family.  David’s son Amnon rapes his half sister (David’s daughter) and David does nothing.  Another son of David, Absalom, rises up to take matters in his own hands and eventually tries to take over David’s throne.  Huge messed up part of the family.  Why?  David could of fixed this early but did not.  

One common issue we see here is the struggle it is for these great men of God to give correction to their families when they could of.  I do wonder if this was a theme with the kings of Judah also.  Why does Hezekiah have such a wicked son Manasseh?  Why does Josiah have wicked sons Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah?

The challenge for us is to think about what we are really passing on to the next generation.  And are we dealing with the sin in ourselves and family now while there is still hope?  What are we imputing into our kids and what are we just hoping “comes out in the wash”?  How much of an active role do we place on the discipleship of our children?  Not one of control and domineering but of imparting life and love for the Lord.  If children really are an inheritance of the Lord how much time should we take taking care of our inheritance?  As the stock market goes down and is very uncertain are we as concerned with our “nest egg” at home?  How much time, energy, emotion, thought, planning, looking for advice, research… do we put into our kids?  Or are we too concerned with ruling our little kingdom that we do not have time?  Are we too concerned with keeping our kingdom together and looking pretty that the very people who will carry on lack guidance and help now.  

Oh there is just soooooooo much more to say and just so little time but consider Chronicles and the lives of the kings.  For those who are not parents yet, you are not off the hook.  This is your time to think about and prepare now for the future inheritance that the Lord may choose to give you.  

The book of Joel was slightly different than the other books on the prophets in that there is more confusion as to when it was written and to which events Joel is speaking of than some of the other prophetic writings.  What IS clear in the book is that the main message to the people is repentance.  Joel is speaking to the people of Judah and telling them that judgment now is inevitable and the only way they are going to make it through this time of judgment “unscathed” is by repenting and returning to shelter in God.  What really stuck out to me in this book is that these warnings to repent and this time of unimaginable destruction and judgment are warnings to us today and that we have even less of an excuse not to act on them.  While it IS hard for us to grasp the reality of this time to come and the severity of the punishment it will reap on the unrelenting, it is not impossible.  It is my challenge for others and myself to remember our purpose is to spread the gospel to everyone we encounter so that they will not have to face what is to come without defense.  Just because we are secure in our future with God doesn’t mean we should rest in that and not bring others into the same place of security.

            Joel was written to the Israelites who were like people on a plane that was about to crash. Their judgment was coming. Although it is unclear as to what specifically this judgment was, either the Babylonian invasions in the late 500s, or an actual locust plague in the 400s, the message is the same. The warning he gives of their judgment is to produce what people in a crashing plane should be doing – prayer and repentance. The reality of the coming judgment, and the correct understanding of God’s intense love for his people and the mercy he wants to show, should compel genuine repentance.

            The situation is the same for today. Joel even describes the final judgment that we will all be a part of. We will either be protected from God’s wrath because of our repentance and belief in him, or we will experience it. Just like a plane crashing, if we really see what is ahead, we would take seriously this call, and pray. God wants to save us all. However, we must come to a place where we recognize our need for him and how we have sinned against him. He wants to rescue us from our sin and ourselves. Apart from him, we have no hope – no hope in this life, or after.

            The book of Joel gives hope for the believers and encourages us to take seriously the fate of those around us who do not know God and tell them of God’s love. For those who do not know him, this book should produce fear. The Day of Judgment will be a “great and terrible day”, and it is coming. God desires for it to be “great” for all. We must tell others of his great character and love for us so that they do not have to experience his wrath for what they deserve – he wants to save us from that!

Repentance is something that should bring humility, sorrow, and godly grief. Many people will repent of something through only an outward show of grief – assuming a sad face, sometimes shedding tears, or even promising never to sin again. However, God puts forth a distinction between this outward show of repentance and the true heart repentance caused by a realization that you have hurt and grieved God, and that out of fear and love for Him, you never want to do that sin again. Godly grief has to do with a fear and love for God, while worldly grief has to do with an embarrassment, and ashamedness at being caught in your sin.

In the book of Joel, the people of Judah are being warned by Joel to have this true godly grief and repentance over their sins, and no longer the outward show of worldly repentance that they have been expressing. This worldly repentance has only led to the continual cycle of repetitive sin, judgment, and repentance. However, there has not been a true heart change caused by godly grief and repentance. Thus, Joel pleads with the people of Judah to repent from their heart and to stop feigning repentance, when they are simply only embarrassed and ashamed that they were caught in their sins.

            The message of Joel is the same for both believers and unbelievers today – REPENT! But not just with a show of emotion, a feeling of ashamedness, etc. Repent with a true realization of the grief and hurt you have caused God, and a true heart change. Don’t just be sorry – be willing to change. 

For breakfast some times I eat chocolate on toast.  You may know of it, it is called Nutella.  It is a soft chocolate spread that you can put on toast.  When I spread it on I want to make sure that I get it over every nook n’ cranny so no toast is exposed.  I do this so that in each bite my mouth is saturated with the lovely chocolate spread.  Mmmmmmmmmm.

Teaching Jonah was so refreshing for me.  Such a simple book and a book that most Christians know well or at least think they do.   As we remind ourselves about the story and it’s characters, we may begin to ask some “Why” questions.  Why did Jonah not want to go to Nineveh?  Why did Jonah choose to flee to Tarshish?   If Jonah knew that being thrown overboard from the boat would calm the sea, then why did he not just throw himself overboard instead of making someone else do so? In Jonah’s speech to Nineveh,  look at what he says:  ”40 days and then judgment”.  Wow.  Why was that only said, with no opportunity to repent in this speech at all?  

 

The why questions could be endless.  But the answer seems to be the same.  You can find it in Jonah 4.2.  Jonah says this to God after the city repents and God then relents from the judgment that he was going to give them.  Jonah is not happy about this, for in verse 1 it says, “But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.”  Then we have the answer to our questions, verse 2.  ”He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord!  Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country?  That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.”  WOW, WOW, WOW!!!  Imagine accusing God of being too nice, too gracious, too merciful, too slow to anger, too loving, too willing to forgive?  Why is Jonah accusing God of this?  Because of who God’s mercy and kindness is directed towards…Nineveh…enemies of Israel…gentiles…godless pagans…

I have never heard anyone accuse God of being too good or merciful when considering their own selves.  Accuse God and be angry about it?  No never,  BUT I have heard it many times in regards to others that WE THINK THEY DO NOT DESERVE IT!

This statement of Jonah happens after he just received mercy from God while inside the whale and was saved.  Jonah was a prophet of God who knew better.  He was enlightened, knowledgeable and had already been used of God before this time and yet, in direct rebellion to God, runs away.  In spite of this God has mercy on him and saves him from his own sin and afterward, turns around and saves a city of sinners and Jonah can not stand it.  Why?  I think, blindness upon Jonah’s part.  Blindness to the need of others of God’s mercy.  Blindness by his allegiance to something other than to God whole heartedly.  He’s blinded by the love of his own reputation and not of God’s.  He is blinded by the love his only his race, and not of the whole world.  This God whom Jonah worships is the God of the whole world and not just of a little plot of land in the middle east.  God’s heart is much bigger than that.  The gospel of the Lord is for EVERYONE, not just those we think deserve it.  

I know I am in need of mercy and am undeserving of it, yet God has and continues to give it to me.  That should be my heart also for my neighbor across the street, town, county, state, country, continent, ocean and all around the world.  God wants to spread HIS gospel everywhere like chocolate on toast… He doesn’t want to miss a spot.  Mmmmmmmmm good.

The book of Nahum is much like the other books of the prophets in that it is targeting a specific audience and warning them of impending judgment, in this case to the city of Nineveh.  What is so interesting about the book is that the first 11 verses is all about God and his wrathful nature, but this wrathful nature is scene in positive light.  In our class lecture on the book, we discussed ways in which Christians are suppose to mimic the characteristics of God, such  as His compassion, patience, gentleness, etc. and then we discussed how we would mimic his anger.  What we came to find is that the anger God is demonstrating is anger out of love and protection of his name and his truth.  This anger is O.K. for Christians to feel and even express because we are called to defend the truth; what we are not called to do is act out on this anger and try and fix things ourselves.  I must admit that standing up for myself and the gospel especially has never been my strong point because I am afraid of “hurting people’s feelings” or “making enemies” but what my eyes have been opened to is the idea that if I tried to explain this to God, he would have to say, “what about me?” I am not writing this to encourage believers to start exploding on others because they do not properly represent Christ, but rather it is to encourage believers to be affected by false teachings and those who curse God and to stand up for the one who has stood up for you since your entry into this world!

Sometimes we are the subjects of unrighteous anger. It can cause fear, bitterness, and hurt. Then, whenever we hear that God’s anger is just, we can become frustrated and afraid, because we associate His anger with the kind that we may have experienced. However, throughout the book of Nahum, I saw that God’s anger is SO MUCH DIFFERENT than unrighteous, human anger. Human anger is sometimes quick and volatile, or slow and calculated, but it usually all relates to a sinful desire to repay hurt, for a hurt caused. But, this has nothing to do with God’s anger, because God’s anger is based on justice.

In the book of Nahum, God tells Nineveh that they are going to experience judgment, because of their sins; God holds them up to the same standard of sinless perfection that he gave to Judah and Israel. Therefore, Nineveh continually sinned heinously against God, He declared that they would be corrected and punished.

Today, God still holds everyone up to this same standard of perfection, because he wants all to live with him and be holy like Him. Therefore, if people fail to meet this standard, then he will punish them. However, because no one can ever meet his standards of perfection, he chose instead, to punish Jesus, so that now we can choose to receive his beautiful forgiveness, mercy, love, grace, etc.! This is the magnificence of God’s simultaneous justice and love; His justice is not separate from his love, but in dealing with our sin through Jesus, his just and righteous anger is displayed, so that now he can show us love and mercy instead!

Therefore, in our lives, we too should only display the righteous anger that God has for injustices, oppressions, sin, etc. Because we can now realize that God’s anger is not against US, but against SIN; therefore, we too, can be righteously angry at sin, while still loving sinners.

Obadiah speaks of much more than a prophecy against the nation of Edom for not helping their brother nation, Judah. It speaks to both family members, and believers in God’s family, today, to help each other when someone in their family is in need. This of course, seems like a NICE thing to do, but how do we walk it out specifically?

             We can be a listening ear for emotional, spiritual, or mental needs, help out with physical needs, etc. This may be easy for some, and hard for others; it is always easier to help someone who you like, but what about a brother or sister in Christ whom might be hard to get along with? Can you love them the same way?

Usually, helping our physical or spiritual families requires us to give up something from ourselves. However, whether it is time, money, or some other need, giving of ourselves is what God calls His family members to do, so that the one who is in need, will truly experience the love that God himself has for them. In this way, God’s love is truly lived and displayed to those in need.

           When the Lord gives Obadiah a vision, it is one that is directed to Edom, for it is a vision of its judgment to come.  Edom was being judged for their treatment of Judah, which involved going above and beyond their call to bring Jerusalem to ruin, and then their gloating over it.  What made matters worse was that Edom was a “brother nation” to Judah (Edom came from Esau and Judah came from Jacob) and instead of hurting them, they should have been helping them.  The really amazing twist at the end of the book, however, is that even after God has spoken of all the evil Edom has brought on Judah, he says that in the end days Edom and Judah will reign together and be part of God’s kingdom.  So what does this say? This says to me that God does not just have a heart for those that are the most spiritual or the biggest “do-gooders,” but he has a heart for everyone and desires that they all be part of his kingdom.  This then of course becomes a big theme in the New Testament when the gospel goes out to Jews AND Gentiles, so it is neat to see that it was God’s heart all along.  The application that I take away from this book, and I encourage others to take from it, therefore, is to reach out to others and help them in their time of need instead of turning your back.  Even if there are people you don’t like, who have wronged you, or you think are just too sinful to deserve a second chance, love them, be kind to them, because that is clearly what God would want you to do!