Thoughts on Romans 12; Coals of Fire

I was looking for something orange for the background of this verse. As I was typing the words on it, I was thinking of the fact that it's now fall. Because those darker spots just look like swirling leaves to me, lol. But a certain sister looked over my shoulder and said it looks like pizza, while a certain other sister heard the comment and said, no, it looks like a puzzle (seriously?! Who would want to work a puzzle like that?! Lol!). Whatever it looks like, I wanted to share something I literally just learned, about this verse, haha :). (You know the saying, you learn more when you teach than when you learn? I was reading through Romans 12 trying to decide what to focus on tonight, and I ended up skimming through the commentary notes, where I found this tidbit ;).)

I've always kind of just took this verse without any thought about where the phrase "coals of fire" came from. I guess I just assumed Paul came up with it while he was writing? I don't know, haha. I know when I do something unkind and then the person I have offended is sweet to me, I definitely feel terrible about it, and it can burn your conscience, so, I figured that was the imagery going on here. But I have just learned, thanks to the MacArthur Study Bible, that an ancient Egyptian custom was to walk around with a LITERAL pan of hot coals on their head during a time of public shame over sin, to show the burning pain of their remorse.

Well. You learn something new every day. Haha :)!

And with that being said, I want to stress how very, very important it is that we never stop studying and feasting on God's word! I have read the book of Romans at least 60 times. I've read this individual chapter even more often, and read several commentaries on it. I memorized the chapter, and have spent the month thinking on it as I write this series. But still, there is obviously stuff I was missing :). You might just be surprised at some of the things you come across as you go through something "just one more time" from a fresh perspective :)!