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Sirach 18:18-20

Before you speak, learn,
And before you get sick, take care of your health.
Before you make a judgment, examine yourself closely,
And in the hour of visitation you will find atonement.
Before you become sick, humble yourself;
And at the time of sinning, prove your conversion.

Encouraging Words

Sirach is considered to be one of the wisdom books of the Old Testament. Like the Psalms, the Proverbs, and other wisdom books, it is full of guidance on how to live our lives in a godly way. This set of verses offers some sage advice. We are encouraged to learn before we speak, to take care of our health before we get sick, examine ourselves closely before we make a judgment, to humble ourselves before we become sick, and to prove our conversion, our faith when sinning is upon us. Wise words, especially in today’s world. Glory be to God!

Sirach 18:4-6

Who will measure His majestic power with a number,
And who will add to this measure
While describing His mercies?
There is no one who can add or subtract,
And there is no who can search out the wonders of the Lord.
When a man completes his search, then he starts over;
And when he stops, he will still be perplexed.

Personal Challenge

We live in the information age. Virtually every piece of information that we would like to ingest is at our fingertips. It is so easy to get caught up in this pursuit of information, the pursuit of knowledge, and end up missing the very object that we are studying. We do this so often with God. We read every book we can lay our hands on, read every blog, and listen to recordings and podcasts in this pursuit of knowledge about God… and yet we miss God. God is not in the information. The information is about God. We need to pursue Him, look for Him in His creation, in our neighbor, and in His body of believers. We can still study about Him, but this must be tempered with living in Him. When we do this we will see God, we will know Him better and deeper. And in this, we will realize that the more we know Him (not about Him, we see Gow title we really do know. Glory be to God!

Sirach 17:24-25

How great the mercy of the Lord is,
And His atonement for those who turn to Him.
For all things are not possible for man,
Because a son of man is not immortal.

Encouraging Words

Our Lord’s mercy is greater than anything that we can comprehend or even conceive. He pours out His atonement for our sins when we turn to Him. No person can do this for themselves or another. Only God does this through His Son who died for us. Glory be to God!

Sirach 17:5-8

He gave mankind the ability to deliberate,
And a tongue, eyes and ears, and a heart to think with.
He filled them with the skill of comprehension
And showed them good and evil.
He set His eye upon their hearts
To show them the majesty of His works.
They will praise His holy name
So as to fully describe the majesty of His works.

Encouraging Words

We live in a fallen world. This is what our Christian faith teaches us. God created everything to be much better than it is as we see it. That has not changed over the millennia. God sent His Son to become a human, a part of this creation so that He could redeem it and overcome that tragic event in Eden that caused this world to fall. Even though we are fallen with this world, God has still built within each one of us, characteristics that can keep us connected to, and focused on, that unfallen world. We have the ability to deliberate. We are able to taste, see, hear, feel, and smell of His divine creation and know what we are missing. We have comprehension and understanding of good and evil. He placed in our hearts His eye to see the majesty of His works and the ability to praise His holy name and articulate the majesty of His works. We are created in His image and can choose to live in that image or in the fallen image of this world. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Sirach 14:20-22

Blessed is the man who practices wisdom
And discourses with insight.
Whoever ponders the ways of wisdom in his heart
Will also reflect on her secrets.
Pursue wisdom like a tracker
And lie in wait on her paths.

Personal Challenge

When I was a youth I participated in the Boy Scouts for many years. One of the things that I enjoyed was tracking, learning how to pursue a deer, or other wild animals as long as possible without scaring it away. The key to this was knowing enough about the animal to be able to find it in its habitat and then to be able to be like it, to think like it, to act like it, so that you could follow it and get up close to it. Although Christ will never be scared away when we pursue Him, this is the process that the writer is referring too. We should pursue wisdom, or Christ, as we would track an animal and lie in wait in His paths to find Him. Glory be to God!

Sirach 14:12-14

Remember that death does not delay,
And the covenant of Hades has not been shown to you.
Before you die, do good to a friend,
And reach out and give to him based on your ability.
Do not let a day go by without doing something good,
And do not let any of your desire for doing good escape you.

Personal Challenge

We all have death in the future. First, it will come with our families, our friends, and our acquaintances, but ultimately it will come to us. We cannot stop this but there is something that we can do. We can do good to those whom we have in our lives while we can. Life is short and we should never pass on the opportunity to show love to another and to give of our ability to those in need. It is never too late to do good. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Sirach 11:9

Do not argue about a matter that does not concern you,
And do not sit together with sinners when they judge a case.

Personal Challenge

After being told to slow down in our verbal responses and to listen more, the author of Sirach tells us to keep our noses out of everyone else’s business. We have come to the place in our society where we do not want anyone telling us what to do, but expect to have the ability, and the right, to tell everyone else what to think and to do. Do we truly want to live at peace with those around us? Then stop sticking our noses in their lives and mind our own business. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!