Category: More Than Bread

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JEREMIAH 4:19-6:15 | COLOSSIANS 1:18-2:7 | PSALM 77:1-20 | PROVERBS 24:23-25

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Jeremiah is our prophet of the day (perhaps for several days, given this is another long book!), and he is the mouthpiece of the Lord. 

Jeremiah is speaking of the impending doom and devastation that is to come to the children of Israel when they will be carried off to captivity as prisoners of war by the kings of Babylon.  That is a day that is coming, says Jeremiah, and this is what one can expect:

¹⁵ People of Israel,” declares the LORD,
“I am bringing a distant nation against you—
an ancient and enduring nation,
a people whose language you do not know,
whose speech you do not understand.
¹⁶ Their quivers are like an open grave;
all of them are mighty warriors.
¹⁷ They will devour your harvests and food,
devour your sons and daughters;
they will devour your flocks and herds,
devour your vines and fig trees.
With the sword they will destroy
the fortified cities in which you trust.

Turning now to our reading of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we find Paul carefully explaining to the new believers that comprise the church in Colossae, the meaning of their new-found faith in Christ Jesus. 

He says, speaking of the divinity of Jesus and how this fits into God’s plan:  ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Paul is contrasting the life of the past with the new life received through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and how that blood has the power of reconciliation between our sinful selves and life eternal.  It is both simple and sublime in its great profundity.  This is the essence of the gospel or good news, and this is what Paul preaches to one and all. 

He says:  ²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Paul’s goal is to constantly encourage his readers, and build them up in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. 

He says to them:  ¹ I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. ² My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ⁴ I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. ⁵ For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. 

And finally, he closes with a firm exhortation:  ⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Is that sufficiently clear, gentle reader?  Continue to live your lives in him!

Next, we turn to our reading of the psalms, and we find David, the psalmist, employing a simple yet highly effective means to encourage himself in his dark hour.  Instead of constantly lamenting the fact that he is in trouble and wondering why the arm of the Lord is not present to rescue him, David decides to reminisce about the many times that the Lord has indeed extended his arm of help.  David says:

¹⁰ Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:
the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand.
¹¹ I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
¹² I will consider all your works
and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

Is that not such a beautiful way of distracting oneself from one’s woes?  May it be that we too take time to remember the many deeds of the Lord.

Finally, from the book of Proverbs, a few additional “sayings” authored by Solomon, wise king of Israel:

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JEREMIAH 2:31-4:18 | COLOSSIANS 1:1-17 | PSALM 76:1-12 | PROVERBS 24:21-22

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Jeremiah is the prophet who has the unenviable task of telling the children of Israel that they have been unfaithful to the God of their forefathers. 

They have forgotten who they are, where they have come from, and just how it is that they have settled and prospered in these lands.  They have taken up any number of gods—idols made of wood, stone, and metal, and are guilty of the foremost thing that has been forbidden them, i.e., idolatry. 

Jeremiah is telling it like it is, and he appears to have a keen sense of cutting wit and sarcasm in the analogies he employs to make his point.  He says, speaking of Israel’s unfaithfulness:

³² Does a young woman forget her jewelry,
a bride her wedding ornaments?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
days without number.
³³ How skilled you are at pursuing love!
Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.

And the Lord’s anger will be soon revealed, says Jeremiah, in these lines:

⁷ A lion has come out of his lair;
a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his place
to lay waste your land.
Your towns will lie in ruins
without inhabitant.
⁸ So put on sackcloth,
lament and wail,
for the fierce anger of the LORD
has not turned away from us.

Next, we turn to our New Testament reading, and launch into a new book titled Colossians—yet another letter written by Paul to the believers in Colossae, a city in modern Turkey. 

Paul writes to the young church established by a man named Epaphras, and says to them in the most affectionate way:  ³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— ⁵ the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel ⁶ that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.

Paul continues to praise them in his inimitable style of long sentences packed with meaning and feeling.  He says:  ⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Paul then speaks of the supremacy of Christ, God’s own son, or God incarnate, and makes a clear and bold statement—one that comprises an important theological tenet or doctrine of the Christian faith.  He says:  ¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

We turn now to our reading of the psalm of the day, and find one in which David is singing aloud the majestic grandeur of the Almighty’s power and might.  He says:

⁷ It is you alone who are to be feared.
Who can stand before you when you are angry?
⁸ From heaven you pronounced judgment,
and the land feared and was quiet—
⁹ when you, God, rose up to judge,
to save all the afflicted of the land.
¹⁰ Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise,
and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.

Finally, a couple of verses from the book of Proverbs in which Solomon, wise king of Israel, cautions against mutiny, implying that loyalty is far worthier:

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JEREMIAH 1:1-2:30 | PHILIPPIANS 4:1-23 | PSALM 75:1-10 | PROVERBS 24:17-20

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We enter a new book today, authored by a man named Jeremiah who lived some seven hundred years before the birth of Christ.  The son of a priest, Jeremiah is called to be a prophet, but is not immediately willing to accept his calling.  With some reluctance, Jeremiah takes up the cause for which he has been commissioned, and when he does, he loses no time in telling the people the error of their ways. 

Israel has forgotten the God of her forefathers, Abraham and Isaac; has become settled in Canaan for several hundred years now; and has crafted any number of gods for herself. 

And so, Jeremiah is here to tell them what God thinks about all this.  He says:

²⁶ “As a thief is disgraced when he is caught,
so the people of Israel are disgraced—
they, their kings and their officials,
their priests and their prophets.
²⁷ They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’
and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’
They have turned their backs to me
and not their faces;
yet when they are in trouble, they say,
‘Come and save us!’
²⁸ Where then are the gods you made for yourselves?
Let them come if they can save you
when you are in trouble!
For you, Judah, have as many gods
as you have towns.

Turning now to our continued reading of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we find Paul making some final exhortations to his readers.  His words are timeless and ring true today even as they must have almost two thousand years ago. 

Paul says: ⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And then he says, ⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Paul can teach us volumes on how to conduct ourselves on a daily basis!

On the matter of contentment, he says this:  I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

We now turn to our psalm for the day, and find David making a statement about the state of affairs of this world.  Referring to the omnipotence and omniscience of God, he says:

⁶ No one from the east or the west
or from the desert can exalt themselves.
⁷ It is God who judges:
He brings one down, he exalts another.

Finally, two sets of verses from the book of Proverbs which comprise a series of “sayings” authored by Solomon, wise king of Israel:

¹⁷ Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,
¹⁸ or the LORD will see and disapprove
and turn his wrath away from them.

May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word.

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ISAIAH 66:1-24 | PHILIPPIANS 3:4-21 | PSALM 74:1-23 | PROVERBS 24:15-16

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Isaiah continues to prophesy of the new Jerusalem, and this is what he says the Lord says about this new city that is to come one day:

“I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;
you will nurse and be carried on her arm
and dandled on her knees.
¹³ As a mother comforts her child,
so will I comfort you;
and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

In this new Jerusalem, there will be a coming together of both Jew and Gentile, an event that will succeed the coming of the Messiah to the Jews when there will be no more distinctions under a new covenant. 

The Lord says, ¹⁸ “And I, because of what they have planned and done, I am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory. 

But there is also everlasting doom for the wicked who are unrepentant.  They will have their chance to choose their camp, and if they choose to remain unpenitent, there is an everlasting separation of the righteous from the wicked at this time.

And this is what we learn lies in the future:  ²² “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure. ²³ From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the LORD. ²⁴ “And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”

Turning now to Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we find Paul addressing most likely another debate about the alleged superiority of the Jews in comparison to the non-Jews who have recently adopted the Christian faith. 

These groups of legalistic Jews disseminated a doctrine of compliance to all Jewish practices such as circumcision upon conversion to the Christian faith, and Paul is constantly offering arguments to oppose these irrelevant ways of thinking and practice. 

In this letter, he goes about making his case in a tongue-in-cheek manner, so as to say, you think you’re so cool, well, let me tell you how cool I really am! 

And so, Paul says this about his own Jewish heritage:  If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

This Law vs. Faith debate is an old one, and Paul’s paramount purpose in addressing it time and time again is to convince his readers that nothing compares to the saving power of simple belief in the work already accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross and beyond. 

So great is this fact of death and resurrection that translates to a free gift of eternal life that no amount of good works, kosher dietary laws, or even circumcision may attain this, because if that were the case, then grace is made null and void, and our faith is in vain. 

To this end, Paul says:  ⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

But inasmuch as Paul preaches a doctrine of grace, he is quick to point out that he is not sitting smug on the sidelines as if he has arrived at his final destination.  This is a faith that is transformative over a lifetime; it is a journey that teaches us many a lesson along the way. 

Paul explains: ¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Finally, he closes out this part of his letter with these words of encouragement:  ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Turning now to our reading of the psalms, we find David offering a most humble plea to the Almighty for help and victory.  He says:

²¹ Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace;
may the poor and needy praise your name.
²² Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long.
²³ Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries,
the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually.

Finally, a couple of verses from the book of Proverbs which comprise another “saying” by king Solomon:

¹⁵ Do not lurk like a thief near the house of the righteous,
   do not plunder their dwelling place;
¹⁶ for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again,
   but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.

May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word.

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ISAIAH 62:6-65:25 | PHILIPPIANS 2:19-3:3 | PSALM 73:1-28 | PROVERBS 24:13-14

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Isaiah is winding down his great treatise on the state of his people and the prophecies that are in store for them.  Speaking of Israel’s rebelliousness and turning away from the Lord, Isaiah says:

⁶ All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

In the most vulnerable way, he pleads his own cause and the cause of his people in these verses.  They are timeless in their quality of contriteness and utter humility:

⁸ Yet you, LORD, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
⁹ Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD;
do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look on us, we pray,
for we are all your people.

Next, there is a great prophecy for Jerusalem in the coming of a new heaven and a new earth.  This is what the Lord says:

¹⁷ “See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
¹⁹ I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.

And what a utopian place this new Jerusalem shall be.  Listen to what the Lord has promised:

²⁰ “Never again will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach a hundred
will be considered accursed.

And the best promise of all is saved to the last:

²⁴ Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the LORD.

Turning now to our reading of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we find Paul mentioning his fellow-workers Timothy and Epaphroditus with the greatest affection.  We will learn more about Timothy by way of the letters that he himself wrote much later, but we know little about Ephphroditus, save what Paul says of him:  ²⁹ So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him.

And speaking of all the legalistic new Christians in the church, many of them converts from the Jewish tradition who insist on circumcision as a prerequisite to adopt this new faith, Paul says of them, ² “Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. ³ For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.”

Next, we turn to our psalm of the day, and we find David at perhaps not the best hour of his life, but certainly at his very best in articulating his utter dependence on God.  Like David, may it be that we also might say with the same confidence:

²¹ When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
²² I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.

 ²³ Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
   but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

Finally, another “saying” from Solomon, the wise king of Israel:

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EZEKIEL 18:1-19:14 | HEBREWS 9:1-10 | PSALM 106:32-48 | PROVERBS 27:10

We continue to plow through the book of Ezekiel, and find God in deep and detailed discourse with Ezekiel.  Ezekiel is the prophet in exile who is receiving his commission from the Lord to go and preach to his people in Judea.  God is making a point here of how sin is to be attributed to the person who commits it, and cannot transcend to the previous or next generation.  In line with the consequences of willful sin, the wicked person will die as a result of his wrongdoing, and a righteous person will live for the good choices he makes.  And yet, there is a third option.  It is never black and white, you see; there is an amazing burst of color, if you will, in this third and mind-blowing option.  It pertains to a wicked person who turns from his ways.  What do you think ought to be the fate of such a person?  God says the consequences of repentance is forgiveness and life.  Just like that!

God says:  ²¹ “But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die. ²² None of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them. Because of the righteous things they have done, they will live. ²³ Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

Likewise, I am made to draw a parallel from the evil person to the righteous person, in that for a righteous person also,  that person’s righteousness is credited to him, and him alone.  It cannot be derived from his father, and neither may it be passed down to his children.  Both sin and righteousness are attributed directly to the individual– and this individual must bear the consequences of either state.  A person cannot expect the righteousness of his parent to save him from his own sin, and certainly not build up an inheritance of goodness that would serve as a legacy to his children.  It doesn’t work that way.  God has no grandchildren, you see.  He is a father only; not a grandfather!

But coming back to the text, it is nothing short of fascinating to see this style of reasoning that God exhibits with Ezekiel.  Remember, this is under the original covenant that was made by God and Abraham, and then further consolidated in the office of Moses by way of the Mosaic Law, of which the first and foremost commandment was that the people would refrain from idolatry.  And yet, in spite of all the many warnings over the many generations since the inception of that covenant, and the many failings of the people, we see a certain quality in God that is as stubborn and steadfast as the erring ways of the people themselves.  God is offering forgiveness to the most wicked of wicked in saying that he is prepared to forgive and forget– that’s right– that’s exactly where that phrase “forgive and forget” originated:  God says “none of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them.”

This is not justice, folks– this is mercy.  Justice warrants that the law be applied equally to one and all when it is violated.  Mercy, however, is completely irrational in not only offering forgiveness, but then going a step further to say that she has no recollection of past violations, i.e., sins.  Is that mind-blowing, or what?  This is the face of forgiveness that God was prepared to offer to his people– time and time again.  But did they listen?  I’m not too sure about that…  This is what the Lord says:  ³⁰ “Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. ³¹ Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? ³² For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!

We turn now to our reading of the book of Hebrews, and find the writer laying out all the details of the old style of worship in the temple.  This comes after a very lengthy explanation of how within this new dispensation of grace, there is now no need for priest, and therefore, now, no need of temple, even.  This must have truly been shocking to the first-century Jew who was used to certain practices of worship, and yet, the reader must slowly and surely be coming to an understanding of how the past is truly the past, and the new covenant in the person of Jesus Christ allows for a new style of worship.  In order to understand this concept clearly, I reproduce these few verses in their entirety below.

The writer explains:  ¹ Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. ² A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. ³ Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, ⁴ which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. ⁵ Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now. ⁶ When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. ⁷ But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. ⁸ The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning. ⁹ This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. ¹⁰ They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

Is that sufficiently clear, gentle reader?  The new order is upon us.  No ceremonial washings are necessary anymore.  Perhaps a more apt way of thinking would be to consider a washing of your heart and your spirit, in line with what the Lord was telling Ezekiel to begin with, thousands of years earlier.  Get a new heart and a new spirit— and you know how you ought to do that, right?

To paraphrase the author of the book of Hebrews, this is what he is saying:  Believe in the absolute and complete work of the son of God, Jesus Christ, who became flesh and dwelt among you, and took upon himself the sin of the world.  God incarnate became the perfect sacrifice, and with the shedding of his own divine blood, he satisfied the perfect law of atonement.  So now, if you accept this atonement as one that has been made on your behalf, you are invited to enter into a pure and perfect union with God Almighty, and his son, Jesus Christ will be your mediator, and the Holy Spirit will your comforter.  This divine Trinity, that is God in one, wishes to commune with you forever– first, in your earthly surroundings whilst you possess your human body, and then in the everlasting where you will be given a new body and will be in eternal rest with him.  This, dear reader, is the new covenant and the new order of things!

We turn now to our reading of the psalms, and find ourselves still within Psalm 106.  This is a recounting of the chronological history of the people of Israel, and in these particular verses, we see a direct correlation to the psalmists’ words and the words of Ezekiel.  David, the psalmist says, speaking of the great mercies of the Almighty:

⁴³ Many times he delivered them,
   but they were bent on rebellion
   and they wasted away in their sin.
⁴⁴ Yet he took note of their distress
   when he heard their cry;
⁴⁵ for their sake he remembered his covenant
   and out of his great love he relented.
⁴⁶ He caused all who held them captive
   to show them mercy.

Finally, we have a proverb for the day, in which Solomon, the wise king of Israel, speaks to the great gift of friendship in this verse:

¹⁰ Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family,
   and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you—
   better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.