Tag: Jesus

Give us the Bread of Our Need Today

Luke 11:2

Jeremiah 27-28

Psalm 129

*Luke 11

-Devotion by Tom Siderius (MI)

In the gospels of Matthew and Luke the disciples of Christ ask him how they should pray. He tells them to pray as follows.

Luke 11:1-2(NLT) As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 Jesus said, “This is how you should pray:

Today we call it “The Lord’s Prayer”.

Luke 11:1-4(NKJV) Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”
2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”

The Aramaic language translation of some of the phrases are “let it come, your kingdom”, “let it be done, your will”.

How would that change your perspective of the prayer?

Jesus tells us to pray to “Our Father”. This is completely new to Jewish people because they never had addressed God as their Father. This is the change that comes to us today as the children of God. Then he goes to the main part of the prayer. There are seven parts to the prayer. Three parts are for God, and three are for us to do for God. In the middle is the food we need as our daily bread. Think of this prayer as an inversion of statements.

Things that are for God

1.)  “Your Name may it be holy”

2.)  “let it come soon, your kingdom”

3.)  “Let it be done, your will on earth as it is in heaven”

In the middle is bread

4.)  “Give us the food of our need today”

Things that we need to do

5.)  “Forgive our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us”

6.) “Let us not yield to temptation”

7.)  “Rescue us from the evil one”

“Your name, let it be holy”

does not give us any responsibility for making God’s name holy.  We can no more make God’s name holy than we can make fire hot. The phrase “make the fire become hot” is not something we are able to do.  The same is for making the name of God holy.

Isaiah 6:3(NLT) They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!”

God makes His name holy which is the center of who He is and is His nature. God demonstrates his holiness in His love for people and in the salvation that He brings to His people.

“Let it come soon, your kingdom”

Luke 17:20-21(NLT) One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God come?” Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. 21 You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”

Jesus’ kingdom is not from here on earth but is from heaven. It comes to us in the person of Christ. It is both near to us and far away. It is soon but we do not know when. It comes alive when we obey God and do His commandments.

The help we gain by praying for the coming of God’s kingdom is that it gives us a connection with all past, future and present events and persons. It encourages us who are involved in the doing of God’s will in the current heaven and earth. Our prayer is for the will of God to be done here and now. And then we pray for the new heavens and earth to come..

“Let it be done, your will on earth as it is in heaven”

God’s will is done in heaven always but God’s will is not yet being done on earth except when His people obey Him. God directs all of history but gives each person the freedom of will to choose what they do and how they act. When we do God’s will now the kingdom comes alive today in our lives. Prayer connects us to God every day.

“Give us today the bread of our need today” (Aramaic translation)

It is in the middle of the prayer and is generally the focus of our daily lives. We are concerned with our food, but also all the things that it takes to live in this world. That is what the term “bread” means in the prayer.  God is concerned with everything that we need to live.

It is not a prayer to get riches or wealth but to meet our needs in every way we need. Our food, clothing, shelter, and health are all in God’s care.

John 6:32-35(NLT) Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33 The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.” 35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

How can we change from the desire for physical bread to the desire for spiritual bread?

“Forgive our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us”

See how Jesus connects God forgiving us of our sins to our forgiveness of others.  This wasn’t the way that the Jews treated people at that time.  In many ways they wanted God to forgive  them, but they didn’t take any responsibility to forgive others. 

What should be our attitude toward those who have wronged us? 

Why is the forgiveness of others so important to our walk with Christ?

“Let us not yield to temptation”

These words are filled with difficulty:  What is temptation?  Or is it trials? 

God doesn’t lead us into temptation or give us trials. We are tempted from our own selves, and this causes us trials in life when we sin and disobey God. Temptations are of our own making.

James 1:13 (KJV) Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

Our human nature is to do what God has told us not to do. The prayer is then for God to help us to resist and then avoid the trials of  the making from our own self-destructive nature.

“Rescue us from the evil one”

Can be translated as “deliver us from evil” or as “deliver us from the evil one”. 

There is a personal and impersonal side to Satan. He does not have power to directly affect us when we are in fellowship with God. But we need God’s help for deliverance from the evil one. Our human failing and sin defeats us when we do not trust God in our lives. Fear defeats God’s promises and help.

Job 3:25 (KJV) For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. 26I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

Job is almost destroyed by Satan because of his fear of God not blessing him. Our prayer to God is in the name of Jesus Christ and our trust that God will help us in every way is what will defeat the Satan in our lives.

John 14:12-14(NLT) I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14 Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!

We see a great example of prayer in Ephesians where Paul prays for the church and the people in it.  This is a good guide for us to follow.

Ephesians 3:14-21(NLT) When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. 20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

What can we do to improve our prayer each day as Jesus taught us and then trust in our Father in heaven to be with us?

Prayer

Father God our Abba, help us to change our hearts to be obedient to Your Word and direction.  Thank you for changing our thoughts to be like Your thoughts.  Thank you for changing our eyes to see like Your eyes and hear with Your ears.  God, You have given us grace and mercy without measure and we love You.  Thanks for the Gift of Your Son who has redeemed us and make us able.  We pray in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ this day.

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You Must Die!

*Jeremiah 25-26

Psalm 128

*Luke 11

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

Jeremiah had a pretty tough go of it.  His prophecies spanned 5 kings, and occurred from about 627BC to 586BC.  In chapter 25, verse 1 gives us a very solid understanding of exactly when this bit is occurring during that span.  The thing that I find really poignant about Jeremiah’s entire ministry is that almost all of the people that he’s trying passionately to save reject him.  Every now and then you’ll see an ally come out of the woodwork, but for the most part he’s spurned, ridiculed, and ignored, beaten and jailed, even though he is constantly pleading on God’s behalf for a return to God.

In Jeremiah 25:2-7 you can almost hear the pleading in his voice as he begs the nation to repent and return to God, but they continue to ignore him and “do their own thing”.  As a result, he tells them of the punishment that is about to be inflicted upon them (The Exile), and actually tells them how long it’s going to last (when Daniel is reading the scripture in Daniel 9:2, Jeremiah 25:12 and Jeremiah 29:10-13 are likely the verses from which he discerns that the allotted time is up and starts praying to God about it).  Once again, they don’t listen.

Moving on to Jeremiah 26 in verse 3, we see again a heartfelt pleading from both Jeremiah and God: “It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way. Then I will change my mind about the evil that I am planning to do to them because of the evil of what they are doing. “(REV)   So then, the people finally listened and…

No, just kidding.  They absolutely did not listen.  Instead, in Jeremiah 26:8: “Now when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking everything that Yahweh had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, “You must die, yes, die. ” (REV).  Man, talk about ungrateful.  Thanks fellas.  This is a guy who has put his own life on hold in order to obediently do what Yahweh God has commanded him, to try and redeem this nation, and his reward?  They all grab him and talk about murdering him, and later they probably do.

There were a number of relevant historical events that occurred during this timespan of Jeremiah’s ministry, as follows:

  • King Josiah rediscovers the Book of the Law (621BC), and does extensive religious reforms across the land (good).
  • The Battle of Carchemish (605BC) was a decisive win for the Babylonians against the Egyptians,  establishing Babylonian dominance in the region.
  • Three major Babylonian deportations: the first in 605 BC (including Daniel), the second in 597 BC (including Ezekiel), and the third following the final siege.
  • The destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple by Nebuchadnezzar’s forces in 586 BC after a prolonged siege.  (THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE!!!!)
  • The assassination of Governor Gedaliah and the subsequent forced flight of the remaining Judeans to Egypt, where Jeremiah likely died around 570 BC.

Now here is an interesting bit about that last bullet point.  It doesn’t say in the Bible when and how Jeremiah died specifically, but strong Jewish and Christian tradition asserts that he was stoned to death in Egypt around 570 BC.  According to these extrabiblical sources, such as the writings of Tertullian and the Lives of the Prophets, Jeremiah was forcibly taken to Egypt by Jewish rebels who disobeyed his warnings. Enraged by his continued rebukes of their idolatry and rebellion, his fellow countrymen martyred him in Daphne (identified as Tahpanhes in Hebrew). This tradition is often linked to the reference in Hebrews 11:37 regarding saints who “died by stoning.”  It’s not in scripture though, so that’s all speculative and based on tradition (and I view most tradition in the church very, very warily, and with good reason).

In Luke 11, we see a disturbing similarity, a historical repetition.  Jesus has come to the nation of Israel, to turn the hearts of the children back to the Father, and is met with a similar response by the religious and political authorities of that time.  This chapter has a couple important bits in it before we get to the Pharisees: notably, in verses 1-4 we have another account of the Lord’s Prayer, and in verse 28 he reiterates that it’s not who you know (even if it’s Jesus) that makes you blessed, but “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”

In Luke 11:37-52, Jesus really lays in to the Pharisees.  He talks about being clean, and the law, and pride, and what’s important, and just really points out a couple of fatal shortcomings on their part.  Now, keep in mind: Jesus says only the things that God told him to say (John 12:49), so when he’s chastising these authorities and warning them about their behavior, it’s just like Jeremiah, it’s for a reason: to change their actions and return them to good favor with God.  They’ve gotten a little off track, have been going in that direction for centuries, and he’s just trying to get them back on course because these are the things that God commanded him to speak.  How do they respond?

Luke 11: 53-54: “And when he had come out from there, the experts in the law and the Pharisees began to press upon him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things, laying in wait for him in order to catch something that he might say.” (REV).  We know how this turns out later.  “He must die!”…sound familiar?

If Jesus had come in smiling benevolently and saying “God loves you!”(true), “and God is love!” (also true) “and you guys are doing great!”  (not true at all) they would have welcomed him with open arms.  Much like we love to hear similar things from our religious figures.  Everyone likes to be flattered, and to have their ears tickled.  When people tell us pretty lies, we love it.  Nom nom nom, we just eat it up.

We’ve gotten a little off track too.  So why is it that we tend to scorn and despise anyone who tells us that we need to change our behavior?  Why do we wish bodily harm on anyone who is offering constructive criticism, or pointing out an error in our thinking?  I mean seriously, it’s a huge character flaw, in all of us.  This isn’t just ancient days stuff, even today I don’t know anyone who just absolutely yearns for correction…but we should.  David, a man after God’s own heart prays to God and asks in Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Examine me and know my anxious thoughts. Yes, see if there is any idolatrous way in me, then lead me in the everlasting way!”  Search me.  Check me.  Correct me when needed, and lead me…in the everlasting way.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. How do you react when told that you aren’t meeting expectations in “X” area?
  2. How do you react when told you’re amazing in “X” area, even though you know you’re not?
  3. Which is truly more loving: pointing out a flaw for potential correction, or ignoring flaws and using flattery?
  4. Isn’t it ironic that on the above question, our perceptions of which is more loving are flip-flopped with the reality most of the time?
  5. Why do you think that is, and how can we change it?

PRAYER

Father God, Please search my innermost parts and help me to know my own shortcomings.  Show me how I can do better.  Please help me and guide me, forgive me when I fall short, and discipline me.  Please mold me into the person you want me to be.  Help me to listen more, and to speak less.  In Jesus name, Amen.

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Martha, Martha, Martha!

Mary listened to the Lord's teaching at his feet

Jeremiah 21-22

Psalm 127

*Luke 10

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

            Ok, to be fair, in the target verse I took the title from there are only 2 “Martha”s, but every time I read this verse I think of the old Brady Bunch television show and crack up laughing.   In the context of the show, Jan (a younger sister) would often complain that Marcia was receiving all the attention, leading to the whined repetition of her sister’s name. This is often (and incorrectly) quoted as “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!” (it’s actually “Marcia”, pronounced the same, spelled differently).

            The sentiment expressed biblically is exactly the same though: hey, why are they getting all the attention, when I’m the one doing the work here?  How often do you feel as if you’re going above and beyond when _______  (insert any name here) is really just not trying nearly as hard.  I know I’m absolutely guilty of that at times, both at my job and at my home. 

            Here in America (where I live), we have a phrase: “phoning it in.”.  It implies that the person in question is too lazy to even show up to work, and they are “phoning it in.”.  I say with shame that I have on occasions in the past when I have felt like I was shouldering the majority burden of a load around the house called out to my wife “Hey, it’s 865.”.  To which she’d go, “What is?”  and I’d reply “that’s our area code, so when you’re phoning it in you’ll at least get close to where we live.” (I know, I know…).

            The problem with that is, and I’ve said this many times: when we stand before the throne of judgment on the last day, what other people have done will not enter into the conversation.  Each person’s actions are between them and God, when we make preliminary judgment we’re taking a dangerous action.  Remember the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (in Luke 18)?  The Pharisee was puffed up by all the things he had done, the Tax Collector just begged God for forgiveness, and only one of them went home justified that night before God.

            The verse that the title is taken from is near the very end of this chapter, and says (Luke 10:41-42): But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,but one thing is necessary; indeed, Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (the REV translation is used throughout this devotion).

            Like us, Martha is anxious and troubled about many things.  Jesus tells her, and us, though: but one thing is necessary.  What is the one thing?  To listen to Jesus.  To sit obediently at his feet and listen to the things that he tells us.  Mary got to do this in person, to gaze up at our Teacher as he spoke.  We have to rely on the scriptures, and the urgings of the spirit, but the one thing that is necessary remains the same.  Listen to Jesus.

            So backing up in this chapter, Jesus says and does a few things.  Let’s listen to Jesus.  If you flip back to the previous chapter (9) Jesus sends out the 12.  At the beginning of this chapter, he sends out the 72, with roughly the same mission.  One of the things he said to them stands out to me, in verse 3 he says “…I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.”. 

            When I first began attending Atlanta Bible College, freshly come from life as a career criminal (yes, of course there’s a story there…), Kent Ross asked me about a week in how I was doing with it all.  Kent was awesome.  I had to think about it really hard, so it took me a second to answer him, and I said “Kent, I feel like a wolf among sheep.”.  He just smiled and patted me on the shoulder and said “It’ll get better”, and he was right.

            When the 72 returned, they marvelled that even the demons submitted to them.  Jesus warned them not to rejoice in this, but to rejoice instead that their names were written in heaven (presumably in the “book of life”).

            When a certain expert of the law (Jewish Orthodox Law) asked Jesus “What must I do to obtain life in the age to come?” (ie, the kingdom of God), Jesus replied, “What is written?”.  The implication here is that the understanding and practice of what is written in scripture can lead one to life in the age to come, in the kingdom.  The man quoted the Shema (Deut 6:4-5), the absolutely most important commandment, and followed it with Leviticus 19:18.  Both are pasted below, since Jesus himself said that this was the greatest and the next greatest commandment both here and in other accounts (in Mark 12:29-32).  You should know these verses and have them memorized, because according to Jesus these are the most important commandments:

The Shema, The Greatest Commandment (Deut 6:4-5): “4“Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone! 5Therefore you are to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. “

The Golden Rule, the second greatest commandment (Leviticus 19:18): “Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you are to love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh. “

            In the parable of the Good Samaritan, just after this conversation, Jesus tells us who our neighbor is that we are to love.  It’s everyone, every other vessel of clay that the Lord God Yahweh has made, which is all of us.

            What else did Jesus say?  Well, Jesus has a God, and tells us that his God and our God are the same God (John 20:17).  He says that God has sent him and that he can only say and do the things that God has told him to (John 12:49).  Jesus tells us that the Father, Yahweh, is greater than he is (John 14:28).  Jesus tells us that he is the Christ, the one whom God has anointed, the man whom God has chosen to be the king (John 4:26).  How has the modern church confused and altered such simple teachings?  Like Mary and Martha in this story at the end of Luke 10, we need to understand that only one thing is necessary: to listen to Jesus.

            If you really want to listen to Jesus, and want a concentrated dose of what Jesus said, I really think (ie, it’s my opinion) that reading and putting in to practice Matthew 5-8 are probably the most important things that we can do to become citizens of the kingdom of God, and to have our names written in the book of life.  Please read it for yourself, and tell me if you agree.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. Do you ever fall into this trap, of comparing yourself to another human instead of measuring yourself up against God’s expectations?
  2. What is the best way to avoid this pitfall, and how can we implement it in our daily lives?
  3. How often do we just shut up, when we are praying, and try to listen?  If we’re talking more than we’re listening, doesn’t that imply that we view the relationship in a skewed fashion?

PRAYER

Father God, please forgive my arrogance when I judge others.  Help me not to do that, help me to avoid the things that can trap me in wrong thinking, and please create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.  Teach me and help me to listen, guide me and give me the courage to follow, hold me and help me to know I am loved.  Thank you God, in Jesus name, Amen.

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Recurring Themes: The Kingdom and The Christ

Jeremiah 19-20

Psalm 127

*Luke 9

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

            Lots of time in the scriptures we see a “recurring theme”; a central idea, message, or concept that appears repeatedly throughout a single work of art, a series of works, or across different narratives.  We see this a lot in scripture, and you can probably think of at least 3 examples of this without thinking too hard about it.

            In today’s reading of Luke 9, we see a couple of recurring themes that occur through this single chapter of scripture: 1 of these themes (the Christ, and what that means identity-wise)  occurs about 531 times directly in the new testament, myriads of other times semi-directly , and another (the kingdom of God) occurs about 365 times throughout the bible.

            Dissecting Luke 9, we see right off the bat (in v 1-6) that the 12 (disciples) are empowered to cast out demons and cure sicknesses, and sent out to (in v2): “…preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. “.  The last verse of this section says “6 And they departed and went throughout the villages proclaiming good news and healing people everywhere”.  So what is this good news?  What is the gospel that they are preaching?  They are preaching about the kingdom of God.  That’s the good news that Jesus sends them out to speak about.

            The kingdom of God (or kingdom of Heaven) is one of the recurring themes throughout scripture, and occurs about 365 times, give or take.  It’s mentioned 6 times in this chapter alone, and refers to God’s coming kingdom that will be established (on the earth).  When Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, a portion of the prayer includes …”your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10, Luke 11:12).  Jesus teaches us that we are to “seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.” (Matt 6:33), so it’s not just a priority, it’s top priority.

            Throughout the centuries since Jesus the Christ left us, the focus has gradually shifted away from attaining citizenship into this kingdom (after the resurrection of the dead at the second coming), and towards “going to heaven” when we die.  Unfortunately, this “traditional orthodox” understanding is not scriptural: scriptures themselves speak only of a type of “sleep” for the righteous (with the notable exceptions of Enoch and Elijah).  In scripture, there are no verses that say that the righteous will go to heaven when they die, and approximately 54 that state they enter into a state of “sleep”* when they die (prior to a day of resurrection) so it can be logically inferred that the majority of traditional “orthodox” understanding is probably erroneous in this matter.  I’ll spare you the bad joke about what Mozart is doing right now**, along with the rest of the dead.

            It should also be noted that the kingdom of Heaven/kingdom of God is, according to scripture, going to be established here upon the earth***, after the return of the Christ, the judgment, and the resurrection of the dead.  If we entered immediately into the kingdom upon death, there would be no need for a resurrection, or the establishment of the kingdom on the earth.  The kingdom of God is to be established here on the earth after a number of specific criteria and events have occurred (see Revelation for reference).  Scriptures that seem to uphold both this and the above paragraph are listed at the bottom, if you’d like to compare and contrast them with your beliefs, but by all means make your own interpretations and do your own studies.

            So, is the kingdom of God a big deal?  It absolutely is, it’s what Jesus preached about, and sent his disciples out to preach about.  Has it been misunderstood and misrepresented in these later times?  It would seem so, according to scripture.  We are also told that in the last days, there will be lots of misunderstandings (See 1 Tim 4:1) and misrepresentations, so this shouldn’t come as any surprise.

            Another recurring theme we see through Luke 9 is folks wondering who Jesus is, who is this Nazarene fellow that some are calling The Christ?  Herod wonders this in Luke 9:7-9.  In Luke 9:18-22, Jesus asks his own disciples who the people are saying he is, and then asks Peter.  In Luke 9: 35 we hear what is presumably the voice of God stating who this Jesus fellow is.

            So, who was the Christ?  What does “Christ” mean?  What relationship did Jesus have with God, according to scripture?  What relationship does Jesus have with God, according to “orthodox tradition”?  Are they the same answer?  Why, or why not?

            This is a recurring theme even today, and unfortunately, we’ve let years of tradition influence our answer in most churches.  There is a fantastic and disturbingly educational book I’ve read recently which explains how a lot of the current “orthodox” traditions were accepted by the church that I’m going to highly, highly recommend to anyone who is truly serious about separating fact from fiction from tradition.  It’s called: “Voting About God in Early Church Councils”, by Ramsay MacMullen.  It’s a book that draws on extensive verbatim stenographic records, and analyzes the ecumenical councils from 325 to 553, in which participants gave authority to doctrinal choices by majority vote.  Did you ever wonder how some of these things really went down?  This book tells you (with original sources quoted extensively).   Spoiler Alert: it’s disturbing.

            Forget tradition, scripture slone should be our measuring stick.  If we hear anything that does not perfectly align with the majority of scripture, then it should be looked at very carefully.  Luke 9, along with all other scriptures, give us some very specific things that it claims that Jesus, the Christ, is.  It is also notably missing some of the larger more ambitious claims of later “orthodox” doctrine.  While our job is not to hold a measuring stick up to our brothers and sisters, we are told quite extensively in scripture to examine ourselves.  With that in mind:

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

  1. What do you think the “kingdom of God” is?  Where and when does it take place? Which verses do you feel lend credence to your interpretation?  What level of priority should we assign to becoming citizens of this kingdom?
  2. Who do you say that Jesus is?  Does your belief line up with the majority of scripture?  Why, or why not?
  3. Possibly the most important question: how does your interpretation and understanding of scripture affect how you view and interact with both God and the rest of the humans he made?

PRAYER:

Father God, Please open my eyes and let me see.  Speak into my ear, and let me understand your word.  Grant me wisdom to discern the truth, and obedience to follow your word.  Forgive me of the many times I fall short, and help me to be as forgiving to the people around me when they do.  Thank you God, for life, breath, and all things.  In Jesus name, Amen.

* the “sleep of the dead” is extensively referred to throughout scripture: Gen 47:30; Deut 31:16; 2 Sam 7:12; 1 Ki 2:10; 1 Ki 11:21; 1 Ki 14:20; 1 Ki 15:8; 1 Ki 15:24; 1 Ki 22:40; 1 Ki 22:50; 2 Ki 8:24; 2 Ki 13:9; 2 Ki 14:16; 2 Ki 14:22; 2 Ki 15:7; 2 Ki 15:38; 2 Ki 16:20; 2 Ki 20:21; 2 Ki 21:18; 2 Ki 21:26. 1 Chron 28:10; 2 Chron 9:31; 2 Chron 14:1; 2 Chron 16:13; 2 Chron 21:20; 2 Chron 24:25; 2 Chron 26:23; 2 Chron 32:33; Job 7:21; Job 14:12; Ps 13:3; Ps 90:5; Dan 12:2. Matt 9:24; Mark 5:39; Luke 8:52; John 11:11; Matt 27:52; Acts 7:60; Acts 13:36; 1 Cor 7:39; 1 Cor 11:30; 1 Cor 15:20; 1 Cor 15:51; 1 Thess 4:13; 1 Thess 5:10; 2 Peter 3:4.  Additionally, the entirety of Heb 11 is devoted to explaining this concept, with examples.

** “De-composing”, pa dum pum (at least until Jesus comes back).  Ok, so I won’t completely spare you.

*** The Kingdom of God established on the earth: Is 65:17-19, Dan 2:44, Mic 4:1-2, Zech 14:9-11, Heb 12:22, Rev 3:12, 5:10, 11:15, 21:1-3, and more.  These texts collectively affirm that the Kingdom is a literal, earthly government rather than a purely spiritual or heavenly entity.

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Who Touched Me?

*Jeremiah 15-16

Psalm 126

*Luke 8

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

            If you read yesterday’s devotion, do you remember there being at least 8 devotions worth of material in Luke 8?  Well, lucky day, since Luke 8 is partially in today’s reading too, one of them (the woman who touched Jesus and was healed) is going to be our primary study today.

            Before we go there though, just a touch upon our Jeremiah reading today.  If you read through these chapters, it really sounds like God is super-pi….well, let’s just say really angry. If you wonder why, check out the devotion from  June 17th this year entitled “Tingling Ears”.  Manasseh means “forgetting” or “causing to forget”, and Manasseh caused the Israelites to forget about God, while being credited in a number of scriptures as being so bad that he pretty much caused the babylonian exile (and the destruction of the temple) because of his sins.  In Jeremiah 15:4 specifically it says: “And I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.”.   Just another clear reminder that just because you come from good stock doesn’t mean you’re good.

            Moving forward to Luke 8, let’s talk about the woman who touched Jesus, as there are a couple interesting points to make here.  First let’s set the scene a little.  Jesus and the twelve are travelling about, preaching and healing people, along with a group of benefactor ladies (Luke 8:1-3).  Huge crowds are gathering to hear what this Jesus guy is saying, people are even being healed, so everywhere he goes there’s a crowd either curious to hear his words or maybe even to get lucky enough to be healed of an affliction.  Maybe even both.  Jesus got in a boat to get some peace, calmed a storm, cast out demon(s), and then returned.  When he got back, the crowds were waiting on him.

            So, did you ever wonder if Jesus obeyed Jewish law?  He did.  When the woman in the crowd touched Jesus and was healed, she touched what is commonly translated as “the hem of his robe”.  What she actually touched was the fringe (or tassel) of Jesus’ garment, which was the part of the clothing known as the “tzitzit” worn by faithful Jewish men in obedience to biblical commands (found in Num 15:38 and Deut 22:12).  So yes, our Messiah was a very faithful and law obeying Jewish man, just as it was prophesied throughout scripture that he would be.  The seed of the woman, an Israelite man which God would raise up from among his brothers “like Moses” who would be completely obedient, a genealogical descendant of David.

            When the woman touched Jesus’ tassel and was healed, he felt the power go out of him.  There’s an interesting discussion here in Luke 8:45-48, in which Jesus asks who touched him.  Once, while attending a “traditional, orthodox” church,  a teacher speaking about this event told me (and the rest of the class) “well, he actually already knew, because God is omniscient…”.  Let’s pause a moment there and consider that.  While I’d agree that omniscience is probably a trait of God (Yahweh),  it seems as if in addition to many of the other notable traits and characteristics that distinguish the son of God (Yeshua) from God Himself (Yahweh), Jesus did not share this trait.  To imply that Jesus, our Messiah, would intentionally dissemble and mislead seems rather silly to me, and ill informed and ungracious at best.  Jesus, as the man God sent, only spoke the words that God told him to speak (and that’s according to Jesus himself, see John 12:49) so I think we can safely rule that theory out completely and move on to the simpler, more honest, reading.

            We don’t know the woman’s name* who touched Jesus in the crowd, the bible doesn’t mention it.   We do know that she was suffering for 12 years from  a chronic bleeding condition, “a discharge of blood” (possibly menstrual), which would render her ceremonially unclean and socially isolated under Jewish law.  To even touch an unclean person under Jewish law meant that you became unclean too.  What’s the big deal though?

            It’s a bigger deal than you can possibly imagine.  In the ancient world, the Jewish people had at the core of their social identity as a people the common belief in the one God, the God who had saved them from Egypt and claimed them as a people, and there was only one place in Israel that it was acceptable to go and worship this God, and that was at the Temple in Jerusalem.  You could not enter the temple if you were unclean, not without a very specific (and time consuming) ritual cleansing.  If you had a chronic bleeding condition, you could never become ritually clean, and therefore you could never enter the temple.  You couldn’t make your sacrifices before God.  You were cut off, not only from your people, but from your God. 

            Put it in your own social terms.  Let’s say you live in a medium-sized town, and everybody in this town goes to one church.  Now imagine that nobody will socialize with you or even approach you, and the only place that you can go to that everyone else goes to is denied to you.  In addition, even though you want to serve God, the only place you’re allowed to do it is at this church, which you’re not allowed in.  Feel isolated yet?  It was exponentially worse for this woman, because the core of the Jewish identity centered around the temple, and the belief and worship of the one God, which could only ritually take place in the temple.  This woman had no friends, and couldn’t even officially approach God, not like the rest of the Israelites could.  Just imagine how that would make you feel.

            When Jesus found out who had touched him, he didn’t rebuke her.  He didn’t scold her as an unclean woman touching a faithful and ritually clean Jewish man.  He blessed her, and told her that her faith had made her clean.  From this point, all she had to do was to go and see a priest, serve out the prescribed time for purification, and then she could enter the Temple.  Jesus restored her ability to have a direct relationship to God.  He brought her back in to the tribe of Israel socially as well, and enabled her to be a part of the nation that was no longer isolated and excluded.

            No matter who you are, no matter what tribe you are from, no matter what the color of your skin is, what language you speak, or what nation you live in: Jesus offers us this same invitation.  A chance to remove our affliction, to restore us to our God, and to be a part of the kingdom.  An opportunity, for those of us bold enough and willing to just reach out and try to touch him.  Even if it’s just the hem of his robe.  All praise to the God who sent him, our king is a restorer, a mender of the breach, a repairer of what is broken.  Thank you, Jesus.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

  1. Had you ever considered the social and spiritual ramifications of having a chronic bleeding illness in the ancient Israelite world, based on Jewish law?
  2. Had you ever considered that our king, Jesus, was a (Jewish) law abiding man, and what the ramifications of that are to us today?
  3. Had you ever considered the deeper implications of why Jesus didn’t know who touched him?

Prayer

Father God, thank you for sending us your son.  Please heal us.  Thank you for all of the blessings that you have given us, all undeserved and unwarranted on our part.  Please help me to glorify your name, to obey your laws, and to follow the teachings of the one you sent to us.  In Jesus name, Amen.

* It should be noted that later “church tradition” does identify her by name with some other interesting and apocryphal trivia about her, but like any church traditions that aren’t explicitly in scripture, they should be discarded with the waste water.

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What path are you walking on?

Explore the call to holiness in Isaiah 65-66 and discover the hope of redemption through God’s sovereign love and grace.

Isa 65-66

Ps 122

Luke 4

-Devotion by Cayce Fletcher

We live in a world that takes a soft view of sin. Our highest virtue is acceptance. We believe that a person is noble if they are flexible on their boundaries. The person who is the most “loving” is the one who is willing to conform their beliefs to what is trending in culture. 

Isaiah 65 speaks to the same tendencies. The people are “obstinate” and pursue “their own imaginations” (v. 2). They say they are holy (v. 5), but they are actually doing the most base and unclean acts (“burning incense in altars of bricks,” “sit among graves”, eating the “flesh of pigs” (v. 3–4)). Quite simply, they call good evil and evil good (Is. 5:20). 

Though the sins of the people are different from those we see today, the heart behind it is the same. Pastor Adrian Rogers said, “We may not have metal idols, but we may have mental idols.” And when we choose to pursue these idols, we exchange the good things of good for the “dirty” things of sin. 

Romans 1 describes this downward slope into sin that comes from a heart of rebellion. It is the great exchange. We exchange the almighty Creator for these simple and unfulfilling created things. That ultimately results in a life that is debased and defiled. 

The beauty of the gospel is that we are rescued from this even if—on our own—we would never choose it. Is. 65:1 says, “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name,  I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’”

God calls us to him. He beckons us. 

We may be caught in the downward spiral of sin, but even there, God meets us and invites us back into relationship with him. 

The ending of our reading in Isaiah today points to our great and glorious hope. We see God’s sovereignty over all of time and space (“The heavens are his throne and the earth his footstool” (Is. 66:1)). And we see that the sovereign plan of God is ultimately to bring redemption to the world. 

God sets before us a choice—echoing that of Deuteronomy 30—in Is. 66:17: “‘Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one who is among those who eat the flesh of pigs, rats and other unclean things—they will meet their end together with the one they follow,’ declares the Lord.”

Under the New Covenant, we don’t have to worry about what we put into our bodies (other than making sure that we choose things that are healthy). But we do have to worry about what is coming out: our speech, actions, and attitude. 

Will we choose to follow the right, holy, and righteous path of God? Or will we pursue idolatry? Will we choose the unclean act of sin? 

May we choose the path of life!

If we do, we will dwell in the new heavens and the new earth. We will see the beauty, delight, and joy of the promises of Isaiah 65:17-25. There will be no more death, no more grief, no more mourning, no more scarcity. 

God will dwell with us. We will be His people. And He will be our God. 

What a wonderful hope! 

Cayce Fletcher is a wife and mom of three. In addition to homeschooling and other ministry projects, she writes and podcasts at amorebeautifullifecollective.com about faith, motherhood, and theology. 

Reflection Questions

  1. What are some of the idols that people pursue today? 
  2. What is the relationship between sin and uncleanliness or impurity?
  3. How does your future hope help you to live for God now? 

Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you so much for the gift of your Son. Thank you for the ability we have to take off the clothes of sin and unrighteousness and be dressed in the perfect, white clothes of righteousness. We look forward to your Kingdom. Help us to glorify you in all that we do. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

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Jesus Announces His Ministry

Isaiah 62-64    

Psalm 121        

Luke 4

-Devotion by Tom Siderius (MI) – Some days are hard…but taking some extra time in God’s Word never hurts..so today – you get to have two devotions – here’s your second one on today’s passages.!

What an extraordinary series of readings we have today.  We read in Isaiah so much revelation showing us the true nature of God.  These chapters give us so many examples of how God relates to his people and how they should respond to Him.  We read in Isaiah 64.

Isaiah 64:4-6(NLT) For since the world began,
no ear has heard
and no eye has seen a God like you,
who works for those who wait for him!
5 You welcome those who gladly do good,
who follow godly ways.
But you have been very angry with us,
for we are not godly.
We are constant sinners;
how can people like us be saved?
6 We are all infected and impure with sin.
When we display our righteous deeds,
they are nothing but filthy rags.
Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall,
  and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

Why does God always have to bring up the problem of sin in our lives?

When we walk with God on the pathway to life, we are constantly faced with the problem of our sins and their consequences on our lives.  As Isaiah says to us our “sins sweep us away like the wind” sweeping away the autumn leaves.  UGH!  Why are the best works that I can do by myself compared to “filthy rags”? I am captured by the ugly thoughts and depression of constantly being less than I know I should be.  Our memories of our sins and shortcomings follow us around like a bad smell keeping us from relationships with God and others. 

However, God doesn’t leave us in the midst of our bad smell and depression.  He has given us an answer in the person of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.  Read the uplifting verses from Luke about what Jesus does in synagogue when he reads that daily reading.

Luke 4:14-21(NLT) Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15 He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.”
20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

God gives us the answer to sin and death, and his name is Jesus Christ.  Jesus reads the daily reading from Isaiah 61 which we looked at yesterday.  God sees the spiritual captivity of people, and their need for help because we are poor in all parts of our lives.  God sends Jesus to open our eyes and unstop our ears that we can see and hear the truth of His Word.  God has not left us in our sins and faced with death.  Jesus reads and then claims the prophetic mantel that Isaiah spoke so long ago. 

Does this section of scripture send your heart to God for help?

Jesus begins his ministry that starts here in his hometown of Nazareth and then proceeds to go about Galilee and then further throughout the land there.  What starts here goes to the uttermost parts of the earth.  Indeed, there is no place where the Word of God has not gone with the record of His love for us and the salvation He has offered to all who obey Him.  God is the author and originator of salvation, and then Jesus is the agent that God uses to bring mankind back to Him.  God desires to save us from captivity, heal our diseases, give us an abundant life, and then save us from death with gift of life eternal with Him.

Isaiah 64:8-9(NLT)  And yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, and you are the potter.
We all are formed by your hand.
9 Don’t be so angry with us, LORD.
Please don’t remember our sins forever.
Look at us, we pray,
and see that we are all your people.

What is the form of the clay of your life that God is shaping you into?

Luke 4:42-43(NLT)  Early the next morning Jesus went out to an isolated place. The crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them. 43 But he replied, “I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other towns, too, because that is why I was sent.”

Jesus is sent by God to preach the good news of the gospel to the children of Israel.  Then  as well to those that heard his words and saw God’s power revealed in Jesus’ life.  This responsibility of speaking these words of life have now been given to us that are the followers of Jesus.  We are now the agents of salvation speaking the words of life to all that will hear.  We are God’s chosen people today.

Acts 1:7-8(NLT) He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Reflection Questions – and above

What is the message of salvation that we bring to all the world?

Can you give a summary of this to people who ask?

PRAYER

Father God, the God who is like no other, we pray earnestly to You today.  We ask for the reassurance of Your love for us that comes from Your Word.  We thank you for this  forgiveness of sins that You have so freely extended to us.  God shape our lives to Your purposes and direction.  We pray for Your help in all our lives as we strive to find You and obey You.  Thank you for this wonderful gift of life in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.  In Jesus’ name we pray to You. We love You Father.

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Learning from Jesus

Quote from Luke 4:43 (NIV) on a blurred map background, stating the necessity of proclaiming the good news of God's kingdom.

Isaiah 62-64

Psalm 121

Luke 4

-Devotion by Kyle McClain (originally posted for SeekGrowLove on Dec 5, 2019)

In Luke chapter four, we finally get to see the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  However, before we get there, Jesus spent forty days and forty nights in the wilderness by himself with no food.  He was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit.  We are never told the purpose of the Spirit leading Jesus to the wilderness, but I imagine it served as a great time for Jesus to focus in on God all by himself before he began his earthly ministry.

While Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, the devil came to tempt Jesus.  Three times the devil tempted Jesus, but he had zero success.  To combat the temptation, Jesus responded each time with scripture (verses 4, 8 and 12).  Scripture offers us a great way to combat temptation, as Jesus demonstrated here.  Psalm 119:11 supports this notion, as it states, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

Whenever we are confronted with temptation, as we all are, a great way to resist and combat that temptation is by quoting scripture.  Now, this is only possible if you have scripture memorized in the first place.  This is a big reason why it is important to store God’s Word in our hearts.

After Jesus withstood the temptation of the devil in the wilderness, Jesus officially began his earthly ministry in his hometown of Nazareth.  He did not have quite the warm welcoming, as the Jews tried to throw him off of a cliff (Luke 4:29).  This was just the beginning of the Jews seeking to end and kill Jesus.  They were constantly taken back by Jesus’ bold claims that he makes.  In the end, the Jews send him to the Roman government to have him killed because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God (Matthew 26:54).  The Jews seldom got along with Jesus because they did not believe that he was the Christ, the Son of God.

Luke chapter four ends with Jesus telling us his purpose, as Jesus states, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent,” (Luke 4:43).  Jesus himself stated that his purpose was to preach the good news of the kingdom of God.  From the very beginning of his ministry, he preached all about the Kingdom.  The message of the kingdom was at the heart of Jesus’ ministry, and it should be at the heart of our ministry as well.

Reflection Questions

  1. Why do you think Jesus fought temptation with Scripture? What Scriptures could be most helpful when you are facing temptation?
  2. What Scriptures do you already know and have memorized? When do you bring them to mind? How have they been helpful? What verse would you like to memorize next?
  3. What is your God-given purpose? How will you seek to do that today?

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father – Thank you for Your Son Jesus who You gave to save the world including me. Help me learn from him and follow in his steps. Show me how to be victorious against temptation. Guide me in fulfilling the purpose You have for me, that I might be faithful to You in all things. Protect me from evil until that glorious day Your Son returns to earth. In his name I pray, Amen.

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My Salvation is Soon to Come

"Guard justice and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come..." Isaiah 56:1 NASB

Isaiah 56-57

Psalms 120

Luke 2

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

            Today’s reading is one of those instances where digging deeper into the scripture really pays off, when you should really be rooting around in the original languages because if you like easter eggs, here are some juicy ones.  I don’t want to spoil all of the surprises, as some of these things will also be covered tomorrow in the devotion in greater detail.

            First off, let me clarify: “easter eggs” is the term that is used to describe a hidden surprise, usually in a video game, movie, tv show, etc.  The term was coined in 1979 by Steve Wright of Atari, who named hidden surprises in the game Adventure after the holiday tradition of hunting for eggs. There are a couple in today’s scripture that are huge.  It starts immediately in Isaiah 56:1 “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Maintain justice and do righteousness, for my salvation is soon to come and my righteousness is soon to be revealed.‘” (REV).

            In the above verse, the word that is translated as “righteousness” is tzedekah.  You’re going to hear me a lot talking about “sedeq” or “tzedakah”, the word that is normally translated as “righteousness” or “justice” and sometimes “charity” throughout scripture.  This is because it is SO PREVALENT throughout scripture (it or it’s root word occurs over 500 times) and yet almost no practicing Christian understands it, or the concept.  To translate it simply as “righteousness” is truly a disservice.

            Simply put, tzedakah is the understanding that our extremely generous God is the creator of all things and all people, and that as his representative you are to reflect that generosity as a form of religious obedience to the rest of his creation.  This is the heart of what Jesus calls the second greatest commandment “loving your neighbor as yourself”, and it also is a way to perform the greatest commandment of loving God with all of your heart (See Mark 12, starting at verse 29). It can be translated as righteousness, justice, or charity.  All are applicable, and all at the same time. 

            I like to translate this verse in Isaiah like this: “Maintain divine law (mitzpah) and do tzedakah, for Yeshua is soon to come, and MY tzedakah is soon to be revealed”.  To put this another way;  the reason that we should obey God’s word and to be obediently charitable, is because Jesus is coming soon, and then God will show us HIS charity.  The word charity here falls short of the full meaning of the word tzedakah, which will be an intense focus for tomorrow’s study, but I feel like it most accurately reflects a good portion of the meaning.

            When Jesus was asked what to do to gain eternal life in the age to come, he answered the man and told him to keep the commandments (this is told in multiple accounts, and can be found in Matt 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-22, and Luke 18:18-23).  The “mitzpah”, justice or divine law, as it can also be translated, are necessary and critical components to pleasing God.  The root of all growth as a servant of God is to do this: maintain divine law (also translated as “justice”), that is,  obey God’s word.  If you don’t start there, you don’t have life.

            I’m not going to belabor tzedakah, because tomorrow’s devotion focuses on that very thing, but I will say I think it is one of the most important, and one of the most overlooked, aspects of Christian obedience in scripture, and one that we fail at consistently.  Look it up on wikipedia for a full “flavorful” understanding of the word, and know that there are a huge number of teachings in the Jewish faith on specifically that term which I’ve found extremely enlightening.  It’s a critical aspect of salvation, it shows your trust in God.

            Here’s the coolest thing: the reason that you should be maintaining divine law and being justly charitable is that JESUS (Yeshua) is coming soon and then the just charity of God will be revealed.  If that doesn’t make your toes tingle it should.  Most of the time when you see “salvation” in the bible, it’s probably an easter egg, and Yeshua (Jesus) is probably inside.  Yeshua, Jesus’ actual name in Hebrew,  means “the salvation of God”.  You can determine if this is the root word used by digging in to the original language, any time you see “salvation” in the old testament.   It’s all over, once you start digging, lots of folks would call that “foreshadowing”.

Isaiah 56:2-7 “Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast: who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh speak, saying, “Yahweh will surely separate me from his people,” nor let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For this is what Yahweh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose the things that please me and hold fast to my covenant, to them I will give in my house and inside my walls a memorial and a name better than that of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.  Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh, to minister to him and to love the name of Yahweh, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it and holds firmly to my covenant—even those I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

            Scripture is full of clever word plays that sound even better in the original tongue.  Did you catch some of them just now?  “Let not the foreigner who has joined say Yahweh will separate me…”.  Did you catch the assurance to the faithful eunuch who will be given an everlasting name that will “not be cut off”?  That’s probably pretty reassuring to a recently made eunuch.  Another thing I notice in the above portion of scripture is that the Sabbath seems to be a prevalent and recurring theme of importance, even for the foreigners.  Interesting, isn’t it?  Just something to think about.

            Here is the heart of the matter: to be effective servants of God, there are just a few things we need to do, and to do fully.  We need to follow the commandments (mitzpah).  We need to represent God to the rest of His creation, and be righteous, just, and charitable (do tzedekah).  We need to love the Lord God with our whole heart, and love our neighbor as ourself, and commit ourselves to obeying God wholeheartedly.  These are the things that please God.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. The commandments are listed as a critical aspect toward attaining salvation, according to Jesus.  Have you got them all memorized, and do you follow them all specifically as stated in scripture? Why, or why not? (the “letter” of the law)
  2. How effective are you at loving God with your whole heart, and loving your neighbor as much as you do yourself? What can be done to increase either?  (the “heart” of the law)
  3. If you were to give yourself an honest exam, based on the criteria of scripture, how well are you  obediently doing the things that lead back to God and to redemption? (the “purpose” or “intent” of the law)

PRAYER

Father God, I need you.  Please keep me from getting distracted, and fill my heart with your purpose.  Please let me see and hear clearly when you speak to me.  Teach me with hidden wisdom.  Speak to my heart, and write your laws within it so that I can please you.  Help me, Father.  Thank you, in Jesus name, Amen.

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The Suffering Servant

*Isaiah 52-53

Psalm 119

*Luke 2

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

            Isaiah has just so much good stuff in it that every time I read it I feel like I find something new.  When’s the last time you’ve read Isaiah from beginning to end? I recommend it, it’s just got so much good stuff in it, and particularly if you really dig down into the original languages you might find some nice hidden “easter eggs”.  The suffering servant passages are one of those that I recommend doing a deep, original language, dissection of.  You may gain a new understanding.

            Don’t speak Hebrew or Greek?  Not to worry, even a layman can do a moderately accurate dissection nowadays thanks to modern technology: if you look on biblehub.com and enter any verse, you can scroll all the way down to the bottom and it’s got the original language broken down word for word with all of the potential translations of that word.  While that will not give you as full of an understanding as learning the original language deeply, and you may not get some of the syntax or idioms of the original language, it’s still a handy way that anyone can become an armchair textual critic and examine the scriptures.

            Starting in the last portion of Isaiah 52, and continuing through 53, we see the famous “Suffering Servant” passage of scripture, which is a prophetic description of the Messiah, the one whom God has chosen.  Did they understand all of the significance of these prophecies in ancient Israel? It doesn’t seem that way, it seems like they were looking for an immediate restoration of Israel into a position of pre-eminence.  Look at the way the people greeted him at the triumphal entry (listed in all the gospels, Matt 21, Mark 11, Luke 19,  and John 12).  Think of how quickly this esteem changed, as this event was the beginning of the week that he was crucified (and then resurrected).  Like many prophecies, the full significance of these passages weren’t really understood until later.

            Beginning in 52:1 we see (REV): “Behold, my servant will act wisely. He will be high and lifted up and exalted.”  Do you remember when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemene shortly after that triumphal entry into Jerusalem, praying fiercely to his God (and ours, see John 20:17) to spare him from the suffering which was coming?  During this gut-level, deep pleading for an escape, Jesus also said “not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).  This is Jesus acting wisely, and trusting in his God.  He is later lifted up (on a cross), and then exalted (from the grave).  Please note: the definition of wisdom is submitting yourself to the will of God.  Even if you really want to do something else (like Jesus did), even if your will is different than God’s will (like Jesus’ will at the time was, by his own words), submit yourself to God’s will (like Jesus did).

            The body of Isaiah 53 really gets specific on some of the things that the servant will be and do, and have done to him.  It’s impossible for anyone to read this now and not think of some of the things that Jesus endured.  He grows up (v2),  he is despised (v3), he carries our sickness and suffering (v4), he was pierced for our transgressions and by his wounds we are healed (v5).  Verse 6 tells us that “We all like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way, but Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (REV), much like the scapegoat in ancient Israel.  That last line “…the iniquity of us all” strikes me pretty deeply, because I know I had enough iniquity just by myself to make a heavy load.  Imagine the weight of the iniquity of us all; it was laid on Jesus, as a way for God to reconcile with man.  That’s deep.

            Isaiah 53:10 is just a terrible laundry list of things that the servant of God must go through, and an explanation of why (the iniquity of us all).  When we get down to 53:11-12, we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel: “After the anguish of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will make many righteous by the knowledge of himself, and he will bear their iniquities.  Therefore I will give him a portion with the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and he permitted himself to be counted among the transgressors. Yet he himself carried the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. “

            So while Jesus’ will was not to die and suffer, he permitted himself to, to submit himself to the will of God.  God didn’t force it upon him but allowed him the choice, and he chose to do God’s will, and by doing so redeemed us all.  To carry the sins of the entire world is indisputably a heavy, heavy burden, but he chose to do so, because it was God’s will.  As a result, he has become and fulfilled the prophecy of the righteous servant who would suffer.  This is our king, a man worthy enough to lead us because he was willing to bear all of our collective iniquities, the servant of God.

            Luke 2:1-20 describes the wonderful birth of our king, the Messiah, and the first portion of the chapter relays a number of glorious events and declarations that happen.  I think my favorite verse in this section is v19 “But Mary was treasuring up all these things, pondering them in her heart. ” (REV).  Consider what a high honor it was, to be the mother that would birth the Messiah, the one who would save the world.  There are a couple things later in this chapter that give us both a confirmation that this is indeed going to be the Messiah, but also a foreshadowing of the events prophesied in the “Suffering Servant” passages of Isaiah.

            Luke 2:25-35 tell of Simeon, a deeply religious man whom the spirit of God was upon, who was promised to see the Messiah before he passed.  He confirms that Jesus is the Messiah, and rejoices in the honor that God has given him, but tells Mary down in v35 that “…a broadsword will pierce through your own soul.”.  Imagine how you’d feel as a mother, later on.

            One thing that should be painfully clear to us all as we read Luke 11:21-52 is that Jesus was an “orthodox” Jew.  He obeyed all of the Jewish Law, every jot and tittle (the little marks that are identifiers in the hebrew written language).  He had to be, to fulfill all of the prophecies regarding the Messiah.  Later on he would clarify much of this law, to more fully explain the “spirit” of the law as well as the exact letter of the law.

            While we know from scripture that God doesn’t change (Mal 3:6, Ps 102:27, Num 23:19, James 1:17) the last verse in Luke 2 (and the last verse in Luke 1) clearly indicates that Jesus did:  Luke 2:52 “And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” (REV).  He grew in wisdom and in stature, and he also grew in favor with God and his fellow man.  This presents a problem verse for some of the more traditional “orthodox” presentations of the nature of the Christ, but the scriptures themselves are pretty clear and simple and as always; when our interpretations or traditions are in opposition to scripture, we should defer to scripture. 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. Have you ever considered the weight of the burden of not just your sin but the sin of the entire world, every other human being throughout all time, placed on the shoulders of one obedient man?
  2. Had you ever considered how proud Mary was of her son, and then tried to imagine what she felt as she watched him suffer on the cross?
  3. Isaiah 53:11 says “my righteous servant”, but did you know the word for righteous is צַדִּ֛יק (tzedekh), and has much deeper connotations than “righteousness”? Do a deep study on this word (it will come up again soon, in another devotion).

PRAYER

Father God, I am humbled that my sins were carried by another.  Please forgive me.  Thank you for life, breath, and all things, and especially for sending us your son.  In Jesus name, Amen.

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