It is easy to get to the end of our rope, to find that our cup is empty. In moments like these we became frustrated at best. Our weakness makes our goals out of our grasp. Thankfully, we have someone on our side that can give us strength in our struggle and can fill our cup once more so we are not only capable, but we are ready to meet whatever challenge He has set before us. So the question is, how can we access this power? Here are some scriptures to remind us to stop looking into ourselves but seek the strength of the Lord.
Cry out to the Ever-Present God: We serve a God that is in every place at every moment. That means when his children cry out, He will answer them and can come quickly to their aid. He welcomes our prayers, and our conversations with Him give us strength because we are reminded exactly who we are connected to.
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?If I go up to the heavens, you are there if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.If I rise on the wings of the dawn if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” Psalm 139:7-10
“Lord, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God. Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior.” – Psalm 38:21-22
Embracing Jesus as Our Advocate: In our trials and tribulations, we can find strength knowing that Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God, and He understands our struggles. By petitioning in His name, He is mediating for us. Because of this connection, we can speak directly to our Heavenly Father, and furthermore, access the power of His Holy Spirit, which has the power to comfort, heal, and protect those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb.
“Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.” – Job 16:19-22
“Therefore [Jesus] is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” – Hebrews 7:25
Surrendering to God’s Will: When we submit to the will of God, we are emulating Christ our Savior. Jesus submitted to the will of God every step of the way leading up to His death. God calls us all to be martyrs, not that we all give our lives on a cross, but that we all sacrifice our wills and intentions for Him. God may call us to do a hard thing, but He also gives us the strength to accomplish it when we submit to His will. His alone is sovereign and He alone can empower us to endure.
“Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” – John 18:11
-Aaron Winner
Reflection Questions
Of the three steps Aaron shared: Cry Out to the Ever Present God, Embrace Jesus as Our Advocate and Surrender to God’s Will, which comes hardest for you?
What would it look like for you to do each of these steps in whatever situation you find yourself in this week? What is the benefit to each of these steps?
The greatest mystery in the book of Job is not why Job suffers, but why a man crippled by suffering is forced to fight a long, drawn-out theological battle with people who are supposed to be his friends. (Mike Mason, The Gospel According to Job)
Job’s friends start out pretty good. They find out about what’s happening in his life and come from far away with the intent ‘to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.’ After emotional expressions ‘they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.’
Sadly, after such a strong start, they end up kind of being the worst, saying things like:
Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?
Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
Yikes. The guy just lost everything, his livelihood, every one of his children, and he himself is covered in ‘loathsome sores.’ It seems incredibly insensitive, but honestly, it’s a pretty typical Christian response to suffering.
We often begin by sitting with people in their suffering. But maybe because it’s uncomfortable to stay there, or maybe because we feel an urge to ‘speak truth’ to them, we muck it all up by sermonizing. Like Job’s friends, we think we’re encouraging by offering reasonable answers to their situation.
And the thing is, what they’re saying (what we often say) isn’t necessarily wrong. Job’s friends are quoted in the New Testament. (5:13 is quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:19 and 5:17 is quoted in Hebrews 12:5). But while it may not be wrong, it is unkind, insensitive, and perhaps mis-applied.
I cringe when I hear a well-meaning believer simply quote scripture to a hurting brother or sister. Sometimes, often times, the most effective thing we can do as a spiritual friend is not to counsel, teach, direct, or judge. The book of Job would be a lot shorter if Job’s friends understood this.
We haven’t gotten to the part yet where God speaks. And that answers the question that most often causes me to open my big yap and offer up my meager two cents… but if I don’t speak truth to them, who will? Um… God, maybe?
How many people have our good intentions hurt?
C.S. Lewis wrote in A Grief Observed,
“Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.”
-Susan Landry
Reflection Questions
Have you ever been in a time of suffering and someone said or did something you found comforting and helpful? If so, what? (Feel free to leave a comment to share good examples and ideas with us.)
Pray to be a sensitive and compassionate comforter to those in need.
The phrase ‘the patience of Job’ is really not accurate. Job persevered for sure, but not patiently. He suffered, but not silently. The book of Job is the story of a rebel.
After his suffering begins, his saintly friends take turns explaining his problems to him with good, logical, theological phrasing. I would call their monologues churchy. Job, on the other hand, goes to God with his irreverent appeal for an explanation. And that’s the real difference between Job and his friends… Job spoke to God about his suffering while his friends spoke about God to Job.
Chapter 3 begins with Job opening his mouth and cursing the day of his birth, saying, “Let the day perish on which I was born.” He goes on at length and in great detail describing that notion.
But this isn’t a typical poor me kind of complaint. His personal lament turns to a lament for all of those who suffer through life. The poorest of the poor, those who grow up with no advantages, despised, rejected, people who are just surviving.
Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave?
Job invites us to ask the hard questions rather than to slip into the platitudes that can come too easily. Questions about the meaning of life and about God himself. And he models to us the way to find peace in our questioning…not by talking about God, but by talking to him.
Uncomfortable? Yup. Worth it? I think Job would say so.
-Susan Landry
Reflection Questions
Do you spend more time talking to God or talking about God? Which comes easier to you?
Do you have a little list of hard questions you have been avoiding asking God? Talk to Him about them – and see how He answers.
Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.
Among all my enemies I am a disgrace, and among my neighbors even more. I am dreaded by my friends—they flee when they see me on the street.
I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.
If I told you that the above passage was from the book of Job, you’d probably believe me. But King David wrote those words in Psalm 31. He is in distress, weak with sorrow and grief, groaning and weak in his affliction. He is shamed and disgraced by those around him, broken. The description of his anguish is amazingly similar to Job’s experience.
Interestingly, while David describes himself as ‘broken pottery,’ Job uses broken pottery to scrape his oozing boils.
loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. Job 2:7-8
I say…Ew. But Job said,
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD. Job 1:21
Would you be surprised to see that David echoes the wisdom of Job?
Blessed be the LORD, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. Psalm 31:21-22
Blessed be the name of the LORD.
I think that praise from the depths is maybe the most beautiful praise. It is certainly the most trusting. David, in his Psalm, invites us to join him in his trust, and I invite you to carry these words with you today:
Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD! Psalm 31:24
-Susan Landry
Reflection Questions
What does it look like to wait for/on the Lord?
What steps can we take to help our heart take courage when we are in the depths?
What can we learn from the examples of David and Job?
Sometimes things are just hard. Life is not going our way. We’re feeling burdened, overwhelmed, or just plain sad. When we are stuck in the middle of these times, it can bring relief just to see the possibility of a light at the end of our dark tunnel. We don’t even have to see the light yet. Just knowing that it’s coming can lighten our load and bring a deep breath of hope.
I was talking with a friend recently who is feeling a lot of stress at work. My friend is doing her own job as well as another person’s job. When we talked, she told me that her company had posted the other person’s job and should be hiring to fill it soon. Even though her workload hadn’t changed, in that moment she felt a subtle lifting of her burden. The relief wasn’t there yet, but just knowing that it was coming gave her hope, and a boost to continue on until the relief actually showed up and she could go back to just doing her own job.
Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30:5b
Have you ever experienced insomnia? How about being up all night with a sick child (or sick self)? We’ve all been in those situations where we wish with every fiber of our being that morning would just arrive. And it does. Every single time.
Although some nights may be long and dark, joy will come again. The darkness may even get worse but God will meet you in your darkness and the light will come.
Life is not free of struggle or pain– not even for the most faithful servant of God. But in our pain and confusion, God is always with us, working for our good.
Isaiah 43:2 reminds us of that: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
It would be nice, wouldn’t it, if God promised that he’d take away all of our burdens? Snap his fingers and make everything sunshine and rainbows. The reasons why he doesn’t are probably many and accurate.
What he does promise us, though, is that not only will he be with us in the dark times (and as someone who is still afraid of the dark, that is no small gift) but he promises us that light will come. Let me say that again for those who need to let that sink in…
Light. Will. Come.
But even more than THAT, God doesn’t simply promise to give us peace at the end of the long, dark night. He offers dancing. Dancing!
You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. LORD my God, I will praise you forever. Psalm 30:11
Thanks, God. Thanks for being so kind to a dummy like me who, even though I know the morning always comes, still doubts…still fears in the darkness. And yes, thank you for asking, you may have this dance.
-Susan Landry
Reflection Questions
Read Psalm 30 looking for how God is described and what He is doing/has done. Now re-read it and find how the Psalmist is responding. What image of God do you have after reading Psalm 30? What is your response?
What is the darkest night/hardest struggle you have encountered so far? Are you still in it right now or have you already experienced some light/joy/and perhaps even dancing? How did you see God during the dark mourning – and also in the light morning?
Who do you know who is stuck in a dark night right now and could benefit from hearing that the light is coming? How can you use God’s promises, His Word, and perhaps even this devotion to be an encouragement to this person? What/who can you also be praying for?
After reading the Job Introduction below, how does it apply to today’s devotion?
Job Introduction
The Book of Job is about a righteous man named Job who remained faithful to God despite God allowing Satan to take everything from him except his life. We don’t know who wrote this book, or even exactly when it took place. Given Job’s age (he lived 140 years after the events recorded in the book), it’s likely Job lived around the time of Abraham, or possibly earlier.
In the first two chapters, we get a glimpse of one reason bad things happen to godly people – Job seemed to be a pawn in a cosmic battle to test Job’s integrity.
Job had 3 “friends” who came to comfort him, but they were really more torment. They consistently accused Job of hidden sins – otherwise, God wouldn’t be punishing him they said. But Job consistently maintained his innocence.
Despite Job’s intense suffering, he maintained his belief in the resurrection, as is recorded in Job 19:25-27, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him, with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible.)
In the end, God Himself confronted Job, and eventually blessed Job with twice as many possessions at the end of his life as he had before his downfall – including 10 more children.
This is a good example to show us that we don’t need to understand why bad things are happening, we must just remain faithful, no matter what. Job also shows us that we can be honest with God when we are suffering and when we don’t understand why things are happening.
Finally, no matter what happens to you, may you, with Job, be able to say, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him, with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
This week at FUEL we focused on the life of Peter. Peter is an amazing character in the Bible. His life was full of ups and downs. His faith was high and it was low. Yet, Peter was used to do great works for God. I find a lot of parallels between Peter’s life and ours as believers. Today’s devotion is not as much focused on Peter’s life, but rather how he uses what he learned from his life experiences.
1 Peter 1 starts by proclaiming the good news and our hope in Christ. He says in verse three, that through mercy we have been given a new birth through the resurrection of Jesus. Now Peter continues this by saying that even though we have our hope in Jesus we will have a lot of grief and many trials. This is true for our lives as well, most of us have gone through something that is incredibly challenging. Life can really beat us down or we build sandcastles on false beliefs. But when you have a living hope through Jesus Christ, you have a strong foundation to rely on during the waves of life.
Peter also faces many trials in his life such as when he was called out on the water by Jesus, he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink because of his lack of faith. Peter also denies Jesus three times. He is ashamed and scared because of what might happen to him so he turns his back on Jesus. But even through all of these difficulties and trials Jesus calls him back. I know that I have taken my eyes off from Christ and maybe even have denied my faith. But he continues to call me back and offers grace.
Peter uses his life experiences to help strengthen fellow believers. He says in verse six and seven that trials come and that “these have come so that your faith … may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” Even when we face trials and setbacks in our life, we can still return to Christ. Or as Amber shared on Monday night, we all need a comeback. So the next time you find yourself sinking, think about Peter and remember that if he can be pulled out of the water, so can you! Peter reminds us in verse 23 “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”
-Camden Bormes
If you would like to hear Amber speaking on comebacks, check out the FUEL 2023 Monday Evening General Session on youtube (where you can also find all the other general sessions as well). Amber starts speaking, with sound, at 36 minutes.
Reflection Questions
What trials have you already been through? Have they helped to prove the worth of your faith? If so, how?
Are you currently in need of a comeback (has a trial beaten you down)? What steps could be useful in the process of a comeback? How might the living and enduring word of God play a part?
What can we learn from Peter about faith? About Jesus? About God?
Think about all the people in your life, and the people that have come before you. There are always people that come to mind when you think about who you looked up to.
For me those people have been my parents, my grandparents, and uncles. I’ll always be grateful for the amazing people that God has provided.
Now how does this tie into Psalm 142 and 1 Chronicles 7,8,9? After reading 1 Chronicles 7,8, and 9, I realized that the list of names, from generation to generation, is a LEGACY. All the people then till now play a part in a much greater picture, and God knows every individual plan in HIS legacy.
Think back to the people in your life. How did they react when they faced trials, or when the plan they had didn’t match God’s plan? How did it impact the people around them? Our actions in our times of hard ship impact the people around us, whether we see it or not. If you have kids, you know they watch everything you do. It’s the same with other people in our lives. It’s so important that your actions are viewed by everyone, and we need to be aware of how we act.
Think about what you do in your trials as we look at Psalm 142.
Psalm 142:1-3
“I cry aloud to the Lord, I plead aloud for his mercy. I pour out my complaints before him.”
“I cry aloud to the Lord.” This chapter comes from a place when David was in an extremely difficult trial. He was running from King Saul and hiding in the cave of Adullam from persecution.
Even in this dark season, David cries ALOUD to the Lord for his guidance, just as we should in our times of hardship.
Psalm 142:3 goes on to say, “Although my spirit is weak within me. You know my way.”
David trusts God in this time. He trusts that God knows his plan for David and will bring him through this.
What do you do when you face trials?
We have all been in places where all we seem to do is be mad at God in our situation. But what if we turn to God instead, and say, “God I am frustrated, HELP me. I know your plan is good.” How does that impact us, and God’s Legacy.
The way we react to our trials makes an impression. If we lash out in anger when things don’t go our way, we leave an impression. We may hurt feelings and say things we can never take back. Those moments of impact can change how that person we hurt acts, and then it continues. It’s like the saying goes, what comes around goes around. So, what if we spread around love, and trust in God, and watch that spread around. Let’s grow a Legacy of people who love and worship God, and love each other. Love and worship in our times of struggle can make all of the difference.
-Hannah Eldred
Reflection Questions
1) What trials may you be facing in life big or small?
2) How do you react in your trials?
3) How can you show love and worship in your trials? How does this impact God’s legacy?
I spent an embarrassing amount of hours taking silly personality quizzes on the Internet in my teenage years. I took quizzes like: Which dog breed are you? Which celebrity hunk are you must compatible with? How unlucky are you? If Paul were to take that last quiz, his result would be VERY UNLUCKY.
Acts 27 finds Paul VERY UNLUCKY—a prisoner, awaiting his trial, sailing towards Rome in a howling storm. Earlier in the voyage, Paul had foreseen the danger of traveling so late in the year (after the fall fast) and recommended against it, but his concerns were overlooked. Quickly, the storm turns from bad to really, really, really bad. In the height of the storm, in an effort to stay afloat, they dump much of their cargo, including their tackle and later even their provisions.
Beaten, starving, hopeless, and stranded in the middle of the ocean, Paul encourages his fellow men with these words… but only after a quick “I told you so” (It’s such a juicy line, who could resist? Not even Paul).
“Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told” (Acts 27:22-25, ESV).
Paul’s peace under pressure is the fruit of his faith that God will do what he says. God himself told Paul that he would stand before Caesar in Rome. Therefore, Paul will stand before Caesar in Rome. No storm can stop the fulfillment of God’s word.
Paul’s peace under pressure reminds me of Jesus, who just days before his biggest storm leaves his followers with this message:
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, ESV).
Like Paul, and Jesus before him, we can have peace in the midst of storms. You will face trials and tribulations; some days you will be downright VERY UNLUCKY. Yet, no matter the magnitude of the storms we encounter God promises victory. Take heart!
-Mackenzie McClain
Reflection Questions:
Paul uses God’s word to encourage those who are defeated. Who in your life needs encouragement—needs to hear God’s promises?
How can you remind yourself of God’s promises when you are in the midst of a storm?
Paul chose to bypass Ephesus based on an urgent drive he felt to be in Jerusalem for Passover, a drive that may have come from God more than himself. He describes himself as “bound by the Spirit” or “bound in spirit” – he is aware the bonds and afflictions await him, but he is not sure that death is near. But he is sure he will never see the Ephesians again. But Paul arranged to meet the church leaders from Ephesus and gave some words of encouragement and warning (Acts 20:18‑35). It is hard to imagine how that meeting must have affected them. A man who basically shaped their community through years of teaching and healing and tears now said he would never see them again, and that some of them would not remain true to the faith. Their greatest concern remained the loss of Paul. They loved and valued him. The news about their future must have been stunning, maybe even sickening, but what could be done? They had already faced opposition. They may even have anticipated that not all who claimed the name of Jesus would stay true to him. But such concerns had to be for later days.
I wonder what further meanings they drew out of Paul’s words when they looked back on them, not simply as his closing thoughts about his own ministry, but as a commendation about their ministries. Some of his words are so poetic, or they seem so to me: “I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” (v. 26-27). Looking back on it I think this may have seemed less a description of Paul’s own life and more a call to them of danger, for if he was innocent for not shrinking from the task, then that raised the threat that some of them who did so might be condemned for doing so. The image Paul offers of leaders becoming corrupt and seeking to build up themselves is an awful one. I would wish it was presented as a warning to them, something to be avoided, but as with Judas this was simply a prediction.
A note on Acts 20:28: I prepared these devotions mainly using the 1995 NASB, which has the phrase “the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” Clearly there is a problem here, as God doesn’t have blood. Meanwhile you might have seen this NRSV wording: “the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son.” Or perhaps you read the American Standard Version: “the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.” Why do these differences exist?
You may know that the Bibles we read aren’t translated from a single master copy of the Bible in Hebrew and Greek (with a few chapters’ worth of Aramaic). It would be unlikely for a book on paper or papyrus to survive from the first century to today. Instead we have copies of what was written then. And it isn’t easy to prevent all confusion when copying by hand. You could always make just one copy and destroy the original – but that doesn’t remove all risk of errors, though it removes the ability to check if there were any. F.F. Bruce was a well-known Greek scholar, he wrote: “For Caesar’s Gallic War (composed between 58 and 50 B.C.) there are several extant manuscripts, but only nine or ten are good, and the oldest is some 900 years later than Caesar’s day.” People don’t tend to question the text of Gallic War. The text may be wrong if the error got in long enough ago, but we just aren’t going to know.
The Bible was intended to be spread widely. And because the Bible was used so widely and copied for people in so many parts of the world we have lots of copies, way more than for most things – about 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Having those different manuscripts meant they would get looked at, by language experts who wanted to know if they differed and how they differed. As it turned out almost none of the differences matter. The Church historian Philip Schaff (1819‑1893) wrote that in his time he was aware of only 400 New Testament variants that affected the meaning of a passage, and of those only 50 were of any significance. He didn’t think that any of the 50 rose to the level of affecting an “article of faith” (Companion to the Greek Testament and English Version, p. 177). The figures may be higher now, but it still isn’t something to lose your faith over. There are books (I have one) where committees of language experts evaluate the differences and what they think the situation is for each one.
Back to Acts 20:28, it is an interesting case for involving two options. Is the issue that the text was changed at some point to say “Church of the God” rather than “Church of the Lord” – maybe because that phrase was more common in the Bible and the copyist thought it was what Luke originally wrote? Or at the end of the sentence was a reference to “son” dropped, changing what would have said “blood of his own son”? You can see here what Philip Schaff was getting at. Everyone agrees that Paul was trying to talk about Jesus here, not the Father, and that something got garbled in some of the manuscripts. It is not clear which of the manuscripts has the original intention, but this is not a big issue of doctrine.
The matter of manuscripts and translation history can be fascinating, or it may quickly seem overwhelming. Rest assured it is not an area you normally need to concern yourself with if you are not interested in it. (For myself, with my history as an editor, it bothered me that the NASB had not addressed the issue in the verse even with a note.) As one more detail on this history, by the year 600 the gospels had been translated into nine languages. The Gospels were usually the first written literature of these languages. People were creating written forms of their languages just to better spread the news of Jesus to their people. I find that beautiful.
Dear Lord, thank you that you allow us to know about Paul’s struggles, and not just his successes. Help us to be more open with each other about our weaknesses, our tears, our losses. Let us be willing to admit that we need each other. It is more blessed to give than to receive, but if we don’t admit how much we need to receive sometimes people will not know to reach out. And help us, at least, who know that we are weak, to recognize that as a real possibility for others and offer them support and compassion and patience and time. We are not always hurting, but it is hard to make up for missing the opportunity of helping a hurting friend. So let me be more aware, more attentive. Let me listen with your son’s ears. And help me to speak with his words more often. Thank you, Lord. I love you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
-Daniel Smead
Questions
Why do you think Paul valued meeting with the Ephesian elders? What are some things he may have been hoping for with the meeting?
If you were among the Ephesian elders warned that some of the group would turn against Jesus, what do you think your reaction might be? Do you think that Paul’s statement may have changed how many elders fell, rescuing some?
What do you think the Ephesian elders did when they returned to Ephesus? What kind of message did they have to tell the regular members? How soon?
Did the discussion of manuscripts and translation leave you confused? If so, I’m sorry, email me with your question (danielsmead1993@gmail.com).
As we read through Luke, Joshua, and Psalm, let’s continue to be like Luke in carefully examining scripture. Let’s take note of the important details so that we will know the exact truth about what we are learning, like in Luke, as he lays out the facts surrounding the birth of Jesus, including when he was born, where he was born, and who was ruling and present at the time. We are left with evidence that he is indeed the Lord’s Messiah, born under the law of Moses during the first census that was taken during the reign of Quirinius as governor of Syria.
Those details are important.
As we read Joshua, let’s look for parallels between what happens there and what happens in the New Testament, like the women, daughters in the line of Joseph, who came directly to Joshua to ask for an inheritance. He granted it to them. I relate it to all the passages about women in the New Testament who are always surrounding and supporting Jesus and his ministry. Jesus grants many of them their petitions, even the ones I assume were unspoken.
As we read through Psalm 102, let’s consider what was going on in David’s life at the time of his writing. Let’s remember that although it was prophesied from an early time in his life that he would be king, he spent most of his life on the run for his life. When he finally became king, he committed one (or two) of the gravest sins with grave consequences, yet, he was still known for being a man after God’s own heart. I imagine this was due to the constant love and respect he had for God in loving and respecting the LORD’s first anointed king, King Saul, as we see him time and time again showing mercy to him.
Think of a time in your life as a Christian when you were so distraught that you forgot to eat, or drinking your wine mixed with your tears, before getting up, and carrying on, praising God for his compassion, graciousness, and consistency in your life with fear (reverence). Remember that our Lord Jesus told us that in this life, we will have trouble. If you haven’t experienced distress in this way, praise God! But know that we can expect it, especially if we’re doing our part in God’s plan of salvation, serving the word. We’re promised the age to come after enduring this age and all that that entails for the sake of the salvation of others. If we’re working for him, we may also have a target on our backs like David did. But we can take courage. Jesus has overcome the world, and so can we through him, by imitating him when met with hardships.
Notice now in Joshua that even though the children of Israel were promised the land they were conquering, with Joshua as their leader, that they still had much work to do before they were able to rest in the land that was promised to them. In order to even step foot in the land promised them, they had to drive the current residents out. Many times they failed to drive them out completely and dwelt among people who were not God’s people. Often this caused many of them to stumble.
I relate this to sin under our new covenant through Jesus. Although we are promised the kingdom of God at the end of our life race, we still have much work to do. For one, we must drive out the sin from our lives completely, not allowing it to dwell with us. If we don’t, we may end up with a snare that costs us our lives. Thank God for repentance and forgiveness of sins.
Now let’s switch gears back to Luke chapter two. There is so much detail that shouldn’t be ignored. These details, along with the parallels between both of the major covenants, can grant us an even greater understanding of what this life is all about if we go through it all carefully. But again, the result of all the knowledge gained should lead us into new creatures, people who are made in the image of God, who become new in the image of Christ, to the glory of God if we belong to him.
The second chapter of Luke is full of people who I admire for their Godly character. I have no doubt that God hand selected them all to receive the best gift, being eyewitnesses of their Messiah Jesus.
Like unto Mary, the angel of the Lord came to a group of highly favored shepherds, bringing good news of great joy for all people. Not only one angel, but a multitude of heavenly hosts came, praising God before them for what he had done. If I am understanding their message correctly, I would say that they were among the men with whom God was pleased. It is my strive at the end of this life to hear those words from my Lord Jesus when I get the chance to meet him face to face.
When the shepherds heard these words, they went straight away to see what was made known to them. That is faith. After they fellowshipped with the new parents, they went away with the response that we should all endeavor to have after an encounter with our Messiah, which was to glorify and praise their God for all that they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.
Next comes Simeon, the man looking for the consolation of Israel, a devout and righteous man, with holy spirit upon him. He got what he was hungering and thirsting for when he held the Lord God’s Christ in his arms. His response was to bless God, the one who gave him what he promised him, for eyes to see God’s salvation in the face of Jesus, who would be a light of revelation to the gentiles and the glory of God’s people Israel.
Then we’re told about Anna, the prophetess, who chose to remain devoted to God’s work in the temple. Day and night she served the Lord God with fasting and prayers, after being widowed for years. At the age of 84, she met her Messiah Jesus. At that very moment, her response was to give thanks to God. She then continued speaking of Jesus to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Looking at the child Jesus, we can see how he grew in wisdom. He didn’t know what he didn’t know. He had to seek it and obtain it. When he was only 12, he spent his time listening to teachers in the temple and asking them questions. He made it his business to be about his father’s business. That’s the heart of someone thirsty for the word.
The result of Jesus’s studying was a young child who had great understanding of the word, someone who had an answer that I can only assume was correct when corresponding with those well versed in the word, as they were astonished by his answers. He continued to increase in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
And finally, there is my favorite person, save Jesus, Mary, his mother. Her response to all of those Godly people and their words, including her son, was to treasure the things spoken about her son in her heart.
-Juliet Taylor
Questions
What are some petitions or unspoken prayers that Jesus grants to the women during his earthly life?
What else could we relate the work of the children of Israel to with the work we must do under our New Covenant through Jesus besides driving out the sin in our lives?
What characteristic do you admire the most about those who got to witness Jesus in the flesh, face to face before their death?
Seek Grow Love 