Yahweh had given Israel the Law within which to operate.
It was very intricate and detailed.  And yet there were applications which were not spelled out completely.

Such is the case of the succession of inheritance to daughters.

Yahweh with His perfect wisdom could have included this in the Law but chose not to. 

It seems that, even in a rigid Law, Yahweh leaves room for adaptation and amendment.  He shows that He is approachable and will consider requests.

We are not governed by the Law, but are privileged to be able to approach Our Heavenly Father through prayer in Jesus' Name.  Let us take full advantage of this and lay out our praises, sins, fears, and requests before Him.

27:17    the ‘sheep which have no shepherd’ is how Jesus describes Israel – Mark 6:34. Joshua was appointed Israel’s leader in Numbers 27. Jesus, the second ‘Joshua’ takes the role as shepherd in Mark.

27:2 We are reminded that Aaron has been replaced by his son Eleazar. Aaron was dead – Numbers 20:28 – and so is having to work with a new priest. The companionship of Aaron which lasted the whole of the forty years is over. One might imagine that Moses felt a little alone at this time.

27:16   Here we see why Moses is called ‘the an of God’ – On being told he was going to die his first concern is the well being of the children of Israel. How selfless are we?

27:2 The precision of the location where the daughters of Zelophehad met to rise their concern provides incidental support for the idea that there was a recognised place for the resolution of disputes n the wilderness – at the door of the tabernacle

27:3 The way that the girls describe the death of their father reminds us that there were deaths in the wilderness of what we might call ‘natural causes’ in contrast to those who had rebelled.

We have a curious thing in this chapter of Proverbs. The same proverb is repeated twice! In verses 5 and 9 we read "A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies will not escape". Why is this repeated?

Can you imagine writing or collating this collection of wise sayings? How would you draw the reader's attention to something of particular importance? How would you make that thing stand out from the rest? When Pharaoh had a dream, it was repeated twice. Joseph, in interpreting the dream, tells him that "the interpretation is sure" because it was repeated twice. It was the doubling up of the dream (with slight variations) that alerted Pharaoh to its importance, and also showed the surity of its fulfulment.

The same must go for the Proverbs. This saying is obviously both important and sure. Just like the dreams it has minor variations which make us curious enough to look deeper into it. In these verses the only difference is the ending. We have "will not escape" in v5, and "shall perish" in v9. These look like they're the same thing, and they are! What's important is that because they are slightly different, they make us question "why?". This is what God desires us to do with His word (25:2). By simply looking in a concordance we find that this word "perish" occurs again in chapter 21 in a very similar proverb. Solomon has not written two of them, but three!

"A false witness shall perish, but the man who hears him will speak endlessly" (21:28)

Now we see why Solomon wanted us to look deeper. Not only is it a sure thing that God will judge the false witness, liar, or talebearer, but we are now shown why God abhors it so much. It is in our human nature to listen to derogatory comments about others. We will take them on board "like juicy morsels" (18:8 NIV). We will spread them around amongst all our friends and aquantances..... without having checked the veracity of our informant first! (18:17) By the time the truth is revealed we have already done untold damage. Maybe worst of all is the fact that the truth doesn't travel half as far or as fast as a lie. Solomon is telling us that a false report will never be undone. We ought therefore to look at our own lives and challenge ourselves. Do we rule our tongues, or do we allow them to set fires ablaze which cannot be quenched? (Jas 3:5-6, Prov 16:27-28, 26:20-22)

19:4 It is so easy to be respecters of persons. We may dress up the attitude in different ways. However partiality on the grounds of social standing is abhorrent to God. If he were to take account of social standing we would all be lost – we have no standing before Him in our own right. It only through the merits of Jesus that we have access to Him.

V.2 The lack of wisdom makes people hasty, both in temporal and spiritual things. Quality workmanship is almost a thing of the past. Along with this, the satisfaction of a job well done is a thing of the past. This applies both in the mind of the maker and also of the buyer.

19:1 It is relatively easy to maintain integrity when life is easy. However when life is a struggle the temptation to compromising integrity is increased. Solomon here is making the same counsel as his father – Psa 15:4– where David, by inspiration, encourages integrity even when such action causes personal suffering.

19:18,20 Notice the juxtaposition of these two verses. The father who chastens his own son must be willing also to accept God’s chastening hand in his own life.

19:11 Solomon, by inspiration, returns once again to the importance of taking care about how we speak when there is a problem. Rashness is not the order of the day. Circumspection it far better, though coming out with a snap judgement is far easier.

3 v.4-6 The appeal to his credentials by Paul, just as in 2Corinthians 11:22-28, is because there was someone in Philippi who, being lifted up in pride, was presenting herself as being someone important.

4 v.2 The mention of Euodias and Syntyche by name in the context of being of the same mind demonstrates are area of conflict which was destroying harmony in the ecclesia. Notice that whilst Paul censures them he requests the rest of the ecclesia to v3 'help those women'.

3:3 Those who would have the gentiles be circumcised trust in the flesh says Paul. That is they reject the grace of God that is available through Christ.

3:10-11 In speaking thus Paul echoes his own words in Romans 6:5

4:14-18 So Paul had been supported by the brethren and sisters in Philippi. Now (:19) Paul wishes them to draw from their care for him that God would also take care of them.

3:8 Paul counts the worldly status that he has forgone as valueless compared to the riches of Christ  - but it was just that decision which caused him all the pain and suffering that he endured. How do we value the things that this life offers us?

4:5 The word 'moderation' <1933>  is seen to convey the meaning of 'patience' or 'gentleness' as seen in the only other places where the word is found in the New Testament  1Tim 3:3 , Titus 3:2 , James 3:17 , 1Pet 2:18  which is the attribute required when dealing with strive and divisiveness.

3:5 In commenting that he had been a ‘Pharisee’ Paul is making a point that he makes elsewhere. – Acts 23:6, 26:5 On this occasion when we realise that ‘Pharisee’ means separated we see the power of the use of the name here. There were those in Philippi who wanted to make gentiles observe the law of Moses and as such were seeking an exclusiveness or separation which was not appropriate. So Paul emphasises that at one time he was very exclusive also, but now counts all that as worthless – Phil 3:7

4:7The "peace" that Paul is speaking of mind is not the peace of a trouble free life. Rather it is peace with God (Eph 2:14

3:10  How do we understand ‘the power of his resurrection’? Is the resurrection a theoretical fact that we are aware of as being true or does the fact that Jesus has been raised from the dead teach us how we should  behave?

I WANT

No matter how much we have, we never have quite enough. There is something inbuilt into our human nature that says we always need something more. No matter how much we earn, we never have quite enough. Or if we think about our possessions, they are never quite good enough or we need just that one new thing. In a material way, the pressure of "I want" can be a powerful force in our lives.

Just imagine if the "I want" material pressure we put on ourselves became a spiritual pressure instead. Imagine if we were never content with the standard of our relationship with God and Jesus and we always wanted to improve it just that little bit more. Imangine if we were never content with the amount of knowledge we had from the Bible, or the standard of prayer in our lives, or the way we worship, or the way we relate to other Christians.

The Apostle Paul had an "I want" in his life. His "I want" is the sort of "I want" we should all want in our lives. He siad, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." (Phil 3:10-11)

What do we want?

3:2 The ‘dogs’ are the religious Jews who would have the gentiles circumcised. Paul is quoting from Isaiah 56:10 where the whole context is of the blindness of Israel’ leaders and the opening up of the gospel to the gentiles.

3:12,14  Whereas ‘follow after’ might seem to be a rather passive way of describing his actions Paul is using the same Greek <1377> word as he uses when he says ‘I press ...’