- 9:23, 24. What is better than wisdom, power and wealth?
Cf. also 1 Cor. 1:25-31; Phil. 3:8-11. What do you set most store by in the normal course of life? - Set down, on the hand, the characteristics mentioned here of the idols of the heathen and, on the other, the character of the living God.
- What are the implications of 10:23, 24?
Have you learnt to live by them? See 30:11 and cf. Prov. 3:5-7, 11, 12.
Notes
- 9:25, 26. All these nations practiced circumcision, and Judah, despite the fact that her circumcision was ordained to mark a unique relationship with God, takes her place here between Egypt and Edom because her spiritually uncircumcised state (cf. 4:4; Rom. 2:28, 29) has rendered her physical circumcision no more meaningful than theirs.
- 10:11. ‘Belongings’: a few hastily gathered possessions for immediate flight.
- 10:21. ‘Shepherds’: see 2:8 and mg.; 3:15.