Do you know; What fruit is banned for transport on public vehicles in Singapore? The durian fruit. You may ask why? Well as it ripens it takes on a smell some what like a rotten egg or gas leak, sweaty gym socks, or yes even rotten cheese. It is spiky fruit on the outside, but when eaten has the rich inviting flavor flavor of caramel & almonds.
This smell comes from the extensive sulfur compound in the exterior skin of the fruit. This scents benefit of the durian fruit tree is by drawing birds to eat the fruit and in this way spread the seeds around the area of the tree and cause a proliferation of new trees. In Singapore it is a common joke that raising durian trees is a smelly business.
Tuesday 5/30
Prov. 31:1-3 "The sayings of King Lemuel contain this message, which his mother taught him. O my son, O son of my womb, O son of my vows, do not waste your strength on women, on those who ruin kings."
Lemuel was the pet name given to Solomon by his mother, which means "Dedicated to God or Belonging to God". In other words this chapter was handed down to Solomon from his mother to advise him in his reign as a king & as a father of the nation.
She starts out warning him of the tendency of many such ruler to marry the surrounding kings daughter in order to gain favor & protection from them. In other words making them their ally by marriage. However, this many times caused conflict in his home & the nations for they were all used to special favor by their father & so they expected that same treatment from the king.
We might paraphrase these first two verses as Bathsheba saying: What shall I say to you, and what gems of wisdom will I pass on to you, my son, who I have dedicated to the Lord?
This first gem was don't place too much stock on the carnal knowledge of other kings who think by marrying the surrounding kings daughter in order to gain an ally. As I mentioned before this might backfire due to the wife's expectations. Secondly, because of these wives not being of Jewish heritage they would place little value on the Hebrew culture and most importantly on honoring Jehovah God as over all men.
Though this may not have immediate impact on the king, the wives would feel bound to teach their children her family culture resulting in conflict in the palace & ultimately in the kingdom as the king gave control of minor things over to his children.
Here are examples: many times the choice of foods would be deligated to the daughters, that could cause conflict due to the strict guidelines the Jewish home had even in just the kosher preparations, etc.
Examples:
The serious conflict of cooking meats & dairy in the same kitchen - the common Jewish home had two
kitchens to provide for kosher guidelines.
The Jewish home had strict guidelines for how food was to be produced, processed, and prepared.
Milk must be boiled 2 more minutes longer than todays requirements for homoginization.
Clean & unclean meats - clean meat such as with cloven (split) hooves: deer, cows, sheep, lambs, oxen
not pigs, clams, certain fish, etc.
They were permitted only certain cuts of meat to be eaten from those animals that chew their cud
Only certain domestic birds may be eaten, not grown in the wild, due to being fed poor quality of grain
Animals were required to be butchered with strict rules, especially requiring no remaining blood
present (soaking the meat was required in order to remove all blood)
Even the utensils used must be only used for preparation of meat or separately for dairy.
As you can see these practices for the most part were commonly seen as offensive by Gentile people, not intentionally but non the less offensive to Jewish dietary rules. Imagine just this conflict in the kitchen by Gentile children. Not to mention rules for grains, fruits, vegetables, breads, and to add on even Passover requirements. You can see the disunity that introducing Gentile practices in just dietary guidelines could cause conflict.
To fail to follow these guidelines were an offense to the Jewish home, not just seen as a desired guide but a requirement for acceptance by God & His children.
We could write a chapter on this one topic.
The concept for us to take away from this is to not allow the world about us from corrupting our inner desire to honor & be obedient to God in our present world. Our language, conduct, desires, all are held in high regard to our God, while most of these are offensive to our world.
We are not to be conformed to our worlds thinking: about marriage, speech, attitudes, etc. Rom. 12:2 Be not conformed to the world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
NLT brings it down to "Don't copy the behavior and customs of the world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (NIV be able to test & approve what God's will is)
Just think for a minute - The Jews became so anchored in their rules that they failed to recognize the very Son of God when He walked into their temples.
There is a fine balance in walking holy before God and separating ourselves form those in need of salvation. True our world can bring to our lives compromise & corruption, however, we must at the same time live among them to share the Good News. Both of these things are achievable for us if we walk in the Spirit, stay sensitive to Him & His ways. The tendency that we must battle is to recognize compromise and yet be tender to our worlds needs for Gods in their lives.
Remember Col. 3:17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus"
So Go With God and remain in balance to the Lord. Rigid Extremism can become our greatest enemy. The Spirit doesn't guide us to that frame of thinking, rather He tenderly woes us in His ways. Not harshly, with cruelty, but rather lovingly draws us to His ways.