Scripture

13 Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king, who will no longer take advice. 14One can indeed come out of prison to reign, even though born poor in the kingdom. 15I saw all the living who, moving about under the sun, follow that[10] youth who replaced the king;[11] 16there was no end to all those people whom he led. Yet those wh

do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Sometimes when the Angel of the LORD shows up, He’s there to protect against enemies or as a force in battle.

In Scripture the phrase “an angel of the Lord” refers to a messenger angel. But in this instance, 16:7 says “the angel of the LORD.” Many scholars believe this distinction refers to the preincarnate Jesus—God the Son appearing on earth as a man before He was born as a human named Jesus.

we are members of his body.” Ephesians 5:29–30

they profaned my sabbaths.

Colossians and Ephesians teach that love of money, greed, is also “idolatry” (Col 3:5; Eph 5:5). The Greek word translated here as “greed” (πλεονεξία) is broader than simply a desire for more and more money, though it certainly includes that. It means any kind of “grasping” behavior,

Jesus’s command to follow him is a command to align our loves and longings with his—to want what God wants, to desire what God desires, to hunger and thirst after God and crave a world where he is all in all—a…